Indonesia has issued the rules for its mineral exchange, and the live question is how binding its price becomes

Two regulations, issued on schedule

On 17 September 2026 the Financial Services Authority enacted the two regulations that give Indonesia's Mineral and Strategic Commodities Exchange its legal foundation. The first, Regulation Number 15 of 2026, sets out the phased transfer of the authority to regulate and supervise transactions on the exchange from the Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency to the Financial Services Authority. It took effect the day it was signed. The second, Regulation Number 16 of 2026, governs how the exchange itself operates, and takes effect on 1 January 2027.

The pairing matters. One rule moves the supervisory seat. The other describes the market that will sit in it. Sekar Putih Djarot, Head of the Public Communications Directorate at the Financial Services Authority, set out the content of both. Regulation 16 covers trading participants, trading and settlement procedures, electronic certificates of ownership, governance, risk management, user protection and market integrity, framed around the principles of orderliness, fairness, transparency and efficiency.

The institutional build-up behind this was deliberate, and it is worth recording, because it shows a sequence rather than an announcement. A task force to accelerate the exchange was formed on 12 June 2026. An internal working unit for regulatory preparation followed on 29 July. On 1 September the Authority established the internal organisation that would handle regulation, licensing and oversight. On 9 September the Chief Executive for the exchange, Sarjito, was inaugurated. Eight days later the rules were issued. Friderica Widyasari Dewi, Chair of the Board of Commissioners, had told Commission XI of the House of Representatives on 15 September that both regulations would come out together on the 17th. They did.

The exchange operator will be PT Icomex, the Indonesia Commodity Exchange. Its operating licence is targeted for January 2027, and the first transaction is scheduled for 4 January 2027. The first product to be listed is tin.

What the exchange is built to do

The purpose stated by the Authority is narrower, and more interesting, than a general wish for a domestic market. Two objectives appear consistently across the official explanations.

The first is to reduce under-invoicing, by recording transactions transparently on an exchange platform so that the documented value of a shipment and its actual value converge. The second is to close transfer pricing gaps by establishing an official domestic price reference, so that transactions between related parties have a published benchmark to be measured against.

Both objectives are valuation objectives before they are market objectives. An exchange of this kind is not primarily a venue for liquidity. It is an instrument for establishing what Indonesian mineral output is worth, in Indonesia, on a basis the state can observe. The legal basis is Law Number 4 of 2026, the amendment to the 2023 law on the development and strengthening of the financial sector, which mandates the exchange as the place where Indonesia forms its own reference price for mineral and strategic commodity exports rather than importing a benchmark set elsewhere.

The Authority has been clear that one input is still outstanding. A Presidential Regulation is required to specify which minerals and commodities qualify as strategic. Until that list exists, the detailed trading mechanics cannot be finalised. Coordination on the wider structure runs with the Mineral Industry Board, Bank Indonesia and Danantara.

The question of one word in Article 55

The most substantive discussion of the week concerned a single verb. At the working meeting between Commission XI and the Board of Commissioners in Senayan on 15 September, Harris Turino, a member of Commission XI from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, drew attention to Article 55 of the draft regulation, which stated that exchange transaction prices may be used as a reference.

He asked for that permission to be converted into a requirement, and he was specific about where.

"It should be mandatory, at least for domestic transactions, export price formulas, royalties and non-tax state revenue, transactions between affiliated companies, transactions between state-owned enterprises, commodity-based financing on long-term contracts, or other government policies," Turino said.

That list has seven categories, and each one describes a place where a price is used to move money. If the exchange price is optional in those settings, the exchange records a price but does not necessarily govern one. If it is required, the exchange becomes the reference point for royalty calculation, for export formulas, and for the internal transactions where transfer pricing questions arise. Turino's argument was that price discovery is the exchange's primary function, and that a permissive clause weakens that function.

He paired the point with further proposals on commodity classification, ownership governance to prevent concentration, disclosure of ultimate beneficial owners, strengthened market surveillance, warehouse regulation and collateral provisions. The direction of all of them is the same, which is to make the published price hard to work around.

This is parliamentary scrutiny doing what it is designed to do at the drafting stage. The Authority now has a clear and well specified request on the record as the implementing rules are completed before January.

The revenue base that sits behind the debate

The reason Article 55 carries weight becomes visible when the revenue figures are placed next to it.

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources has set a 2026 non-tax revenue target for the mineral and coal sector of Rp134 trillion. Tri Winarno, Director General of Mineral and Coal, has attributed confidence in that target partly to firmer prices in tin, nickel and gold, and partly to tightened supervision and governance. In 2025, mineral and coal non-tax revenue came in at Rp130.17 trillion, which was 104.38 percent of its own target.

Sources differ on how 2025 is described, because some reporting cites the ministry wide non-tax revenue figure of Rp138.37 trillion and its 108.56 percent achievement rate rather than the mineral and coal component. The distinction is worth preserving. The mineral and coal number is the one that royalties and the sale of mining output actually sit inside.

Royalties are calculated on a price. Non-tax revenue is collected on a price. Export formulas are written around a price.

A reference price that is mandatory across those uses is, in effect, the measurement layer underneath a Rp134 trillion collection target. A reference price that is optional across those uses is a published figure that participants may consult.

Tin is the natural first listing. PT Timah produced 12,232 tonnes of tin ore in the first half of 2026, an increase of 75 percent on the 6,997 tonnes recorded in the same period of 2025. Tin is also the commodity where Indonesia's global market position gives a domestic benchmark the best chance of carrying weight internationally rather than only domestically.

What has to be ready before January

Three items now sit between the regulations and a functioning market. The Presidential Regulation defining strategic commodities has to be issued, because the trading rules depend on the list. The operating licence for PT Icomex has to be granted, targeted for January. And the implementing provisions, including the final wording of the reference price clause, have to be settled.

The supervisory handover completes on 1 January 2027, when authority over mineral and strategic commodity trading transactions passes fully from the Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency to the Financial Services Authority and Regulation 16 takes effect. The sequencing is tight, but it is sequenced, which is the more important observation.

Sirkularium's view

For government and public institutions, the significance of this week is that Indonesia has moved its mineral pricing question from intention into enacted regulation, on the date it said it would, with an operator named and a first commodity chosen. That is a credible institutional record, and it deserves to be read as such.

The open clause is the one worth watching, and the constructive reading is that Commission XI has identified precisely the right place to apply attention. The value of a reference price is not the existence of the number. It is the number's authority over the transactions that determine state revenue and the transactions that occur between related parties. Those are the two settings where valuation is hardest to verify independently, and they are exactly the settings Turino enumerated.

Sirkularium's consistent position is that the credibility of any resource valuation rests on the quality and independence of the measurement behind it. An exchange price is a market observation, and it is a strong one. It is most useful when it sits alongside the other measurements that describe what a mining operation actually produces and what it actually costs, including verified production and grade data, and the ecosystem and land condition measurements that inform environmental economic assessment under the methodology Indonesia already applies.

For operators, the practical implication is straightforward. A published, mandatory reference price raises the value of being able to document your own figures to the same standard. Companies that already hold rigorous, independently verified records of production, grade, land condition and environmental performance will find an exchange based pricing regime easier to operate within, because their numbers will reconcile. Building that evidence base as ongoing practice, rather than assembling it under pressure, is the more economical path.

What to watch next is the Presidential Regulation on strategic commodities, the final wording of Article 55, and the Icomex licence in January. The first trade is scheduled for 4 January 2027.