Australian copper has been added to
the shopping list of wealthy Indonesian families already active in Australian
coal.
Mach Metals,
an arm of the Jakarta-based Salim Group, agreed on Monday to pay $265 million
for Rex Minerals which owns the big but undeveloped Hillside copper project in
South Australia.
Best known
for its investments in food production and distribution, Salim is also becoming
increasingly interested in energy transition opportunities with copper a key
commodity in the batteries of electric vehicles.