Indonesia’s Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry has imposed a price floor on nickel ore, to protect interests of smaller miners.
The country had banned exports of nickel ore earlier this year.
The revised price floor was issued on April 14 and is expected to take effect from May 13.
Indonesia’s government plans to issue a monthly price benchmark for nickel ore, according to the new regulation, which was supported by the Indonesian Nickel Miners Association.
The Processing and Smelting Companies Association, however, slammed the regulation, as they believe it could limit members’ abilities to adjust to global market fluctuations, according to local media reports.
The new regulation will allow smelting companies to buy at prices up to 3pc below the monthly benchmark under certain conditions.
Indonesia, the top nickel ore exporter in the world, moved to promote downstream mining industries in a bid to be self-sufficient before the export ban on ore came into effect.
Indonesia’s government had, hence, asked its miners to build smelting facilities before the ban and asked small miners who could not afford their own smelters to sell their ore to other smelters nearby.