Becoming a chemical element liked by most people for various uses, gold is indeed the most valuable natural metal above any other.
Not only to be used for jewelries or other luxury goods and furniture, gold also plays a significant role in the field of investment especially because of its stable increase of cost each year.
Gold can originally be obtained through mines, either manually or with the aid of machines.
Indonesia possesses some massive gold mines operating in different provinces around the country, adding up the chances and benefits of investing in Indonesia.
Being famous for its high-quality gold, Indonesian gold have increasingly been demanded and looked for by people from all over the world, making these gold mines to stand out internationally and known widely.
Here is the list of five biggest gold mines in Indonesia.
1. Grasberg, Papua
Grasberg mine is undoubtedly considered among the list for its title of being the largest gold mine in the world.
Located in Papua, this mine is certainly well-known all around the world especially because of the position of a company from the United States as one of the operators of this mine, the Freeport Mcmoran.
Following the success of claiming a 51% share of PT Freeport Indonesia, this gold mine has then become increasingly identical with Indonesian gold mine possessions.
This mine is enriched with a very high amount of gold, reaching the number of 54.8 million ounces of gold.
Although the data from 2014 mentioned that the total remains at only 28.2 million ounces by now, this mine is still the biggest mine being admitted in the international world.
2. Batu Hijau, West Nusa Tenggara
The next gold mine on the list is located in Sumbawa Island, next to Sumba Island.
Batu Hijau gold mine was established on 2000 and is owned by the company PT Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara.
Being operated well and with an increasing potential in mining gold, the mine was estimated to still possess enough portion of gold for the future years.
By now, Batu Hijau gold mine was mentioned to have produced at least 100 kilo ounces of gold and 197 million pounds annually.
Having been run by the company for seven phases, it is estimated that this final phase will be able to produce up to 4.47 billion pounces of copper as well as 4.12 million ounces of gold by the end of 2020.
3. Batang Toru, North Sumatera
Batang Toru gold mine is another big mine located in North Sumatera.
Operating under the management of the company PT United Tractors Tbk, one member of the Astra Group, this gold mine has produced a high amount of gold each year.
The mine produces an approximate amount of 300.000-350.000 ounces of gold each year.
However, with an unfortunate stagnant of the total production for two years in a row, the company has predicted that the production will continue to be constant for the year 2020.
4. Pongkor, West Java
This gold mine called Pongkor is a place of natural resources in West Java and it is one of the mines owned by the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises.
Having been operating since 1994, this mine which is directly managed by the company PT Aneka Tambang Tbk is unfortunately scheduled to have its contract ended in 2021.
However, it is still ensured that despite this condition, the company will continue to explore the mine in order to keep maximizing its gold production.
The mine has produced a total of approximately 27.000 kilograms of gold last year in 2018.
With this condition of contract, the company reported that they are targeting a total of 32.000 kilograms of production this year.
With the monthly production reaching up to 1.479 kilogram, there has been an increasing optimism for the optimum production of this gold mine.
5. Tujuh Bukit, Banyuwangi
Last but not least, one of the facts of Java Island is that it has this gold mine called Tujuh Bukit, which is another one on the list of the biggest mines in Indonesia.
Although the location was quite limited in comparison with other mines, but it has a large capacity for gold mining that it is admitted to be the second largest mine in Indonesia after Grasberg.
This mine is currently under the operation of the company PT Bumi Suksesi Indo.
This mine is estimated to contain an approximate amount of 28 million ounces of gold.
During the first quartile in 2019, the mine has successfully produced a total of 46.515 ounces of gold and 63.977 ounces of silver.
This then wraps the list of five biggest gold mines in Indonesia.
Let’s hope that these mines will continue to grow and give the investors reasons to invest in Indonesia, so that these mines will keep becoming precious assets Indonesia owns.
