(Adds details, background)
JAKARTA, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Indonesia's nickel miners agreed
on Monday to stop nickel ore exports immediately, the country's
investment agency chief Bahlil Lahadalia said, after Jakarta
last month brought forward a ban on shipments to January 2020
from 2022.
Ores that are supposed to be exported will be bought by
local smelter operators at an international price level,
Lahadalia said.
"This agreement was carried out not on the basis of a letter
from the government or technical ministry, but a joint
agreement," Lahadalia said. "Where the agreement is carried out
by the nickel association with us the government."
The government wants to protect investment in its latest
move while also support the growth of local businesses."
Indonesia's government in September expedited the ore export
ban by two years as part of its efforts to boost expansion of
local smelting industry.
Expectations of the Indonesian ban have pushed nickel
prices on the London Metal Exchange (LME) up nearly 40%
to around $17,000 a tonne now. In September, they hit a
five-year high of $18,850 a tonne.
A spokesman at the mining ministry, who issues regulation on
ore exports, could not immediately comment.
Alexander Barus, executive director at PT Indonesia Morowali
Industrial Park, Indonesia's largest nickel industrial park,
said smelters in Morowali were ready to buy ore from miners.
(Reporting by Bernadette Christine Munthe
Additional reporting by Wilda Asmarini; Writing by Fransiska
Nangoy; Editing by Jan Harvey and David Evans)