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Indonesia unlikely to achieve Global South cooperation on critical minerals, govt says
A government official warns that successfully exploiting such links would be difficult due to distance and technological barriers.
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A worker checks pile of nickel pig iron (NPI) produced in the Morowali industrial park in Bahodopi district, Morowali regency, Central Sulawesi, in this undated photograph.
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residential candidate Ganjar Pranowo says Indonesia should strengthen cooperation with Global South countries in areas of critical minerals and electric vehicle (EV) batteries, but a government official warns that successfully exploiting such links would be difficult due to distance and technological barriers.
The Global South refers to developing countries with a high dependency on primary sectors, as opposed to the Global North, which are wealthier countries that have progressed into becoming advanced manufacturing economies.
Ganjar cited Argentina in the third round of the electoral debate on Sunday as a potential country to work with, pointing to its identified reserves of 19.3 million tonnes of lithium amid the global scramble for this mineral.
“We want to be concerned about resolving inequality based on natural resources, just take one [example], [we can] collaborate with the southern countries [to develop] battery technology,” Ganjar said.
Read also: Despite lithium, nickel still crucial for EV batteries: Industry players
To date, Indonesia has yet to have any discussion to initiate a government-to-government (G-to-G) scheme in the lithium trade with Argentina, according to Nurul Ichwan, the Investment Ministry’s acting deputy for investment planning.
He went on to say that it makes “more sense” to strengthen cooperation with Australia, considering its closer proximity and status as the world’s largest lithium producer, despite its being classified as a Global North country.
