On 22 July, the SIMBARA inter-ministerial online tracking system was implemented to trace the movements of nickel and tin to improve government revenue and accountability. 

The mineral management system, known as the Mineral and Coal Information System and developed by Indonesia’s Finance Ministry’s Directorate General of Budget, was originally implemented to track coal exports in February 2022. Upstream and downstream businesses can now easily submit data through a single data entry system, replacing several registration processes and input mechanisms on different applications. In addition, the single integrated system eliminates the need to provide physical documents and enhances security.  

Indonesia is the world’s largest nickel producer and second-largest tin ore and metal producer. Therefore, the government expects to increase revenue with the platform’s implementation as companies will be obligated to pay liabilities and other fees to the state, with nickel and tin royalty payments expected to increase by IDR5,000Bn (US$308M) to IDR10,000Bn (US$617M). The system will initially track nickel and tin shipments from mines to domestic processing facilities and be linked with RKAB.  

The disruptions caused by RKAB quota backlogs early this year are still being felt throughout both the domestic nickel and tin industries, with refined tin exports still struggling to gain momentum and lower-than-anticipated volumes of nickel ore available for domestic consumption. While tin ore and concentrate imports have not increased significantly, nickel ore and concentrate imports have, specifically from the Philippines, owing to demand from Indonesia’s well-established nickel downstream industry.  

The SIMBARA system will also assist in preventing oversupply and illegal mining by alerting officials when a smelter produces more refined material than possible based on the volume of ore shipped to it. This is particularly relevant considering the occurrence of investigations into illegal nickel exports to China in 2023 and the ongoing investigations into alleged illegal tin trading involving PT Timah Tbk. The latter development reportedly led to the acceleration of the integration of nickel and tin into the SIMBARA system.  

While the system aims to ensure data accuracy, transparency, and compliance through efficient supervision, it will also increase government revenue significantly from the nickel and tin mining and processing sectors. Furthermore, plans are in place to expand the system to track other resources, including gold, copper, bauxite, and manganese.