Indonesia sets up new mineral industry agency to oversee rare earths development

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has set up a new mineral industry agency that will oversee the development of rare earths and radioactive materials, the agency's new chief told reporters on Monday. 

"This agency will manage the strategic materials industry that relates to the defence industry, because strategic materials are quite important for the sovereignty of the nation, as well as important for the improvement of our economy," said agency chief Brian Yuliarto, who is also the higher education minister.

He has previously said rare earth metals were often found in mineral processing by-products from nickel and tin. Indonesia has been seeking to process rare earths found in tin ore such as Monazite.

Indonesia has large reserves of a number of critical minerals as well as deposits of rare earth elements, and it is a major producer of tin and nickel.