Availability of Indonesian nickel reserves and efforts to improve reserves resistance and its impact to economic growth

There is a growing trend towards utilizing nickel as a raw material for non-steel products due to the increasing demand for nickel up to 2040. Data shows that global nickel production and reserves will increase until 2021. As one of the countries with the largest reserves in the world, this country contributes significantly to global nickel production. This paper will discuss Indonesia's nickel resources, reserves and production related to the distribution of locations, number of resources, number of reserves, grade, sustainability of reserves and their impact on the economy as well as efforts to maintain this sustainability. Previous articles only presented data on Indonesia's nickel reserves and production and an overview of global nickel. The data on nickel resources and reserves come from the 2021 inventory by the Geological Agency, which covers ore resources and reserves and their grades across several classifications. If there is no new data on reserve deposits or planned production rates, it is estimated that the ore reserves with nickel grades ≥ 1.7% will be depleted by 2036, while the ore reserves with Ni grades < 1.7% will be exhausted by 2056. Efforts to increase reserves include increasing exploration activities in brownfield areas, exploring remaining ultrabasic regions, and conducting detailed geological mapping of areas where ultrabasic rock is expected. Apart from raising the issue of the magnitude of nickel potential and mining value, this paper also discusses economic indicators in each nickel producing community using Gross Regional Domestic Product per capita. Based on the results of this analysis, it shows that there are differences in GDP per capita and the value of the mines owned by each region as a nickel producer.