Jakarta. State-controlled miner Aneka Tambang (IDX: ANTM) has imported about 30 tons of gold from Singapore and Australia this year to meet increasing domestic demand, highlighting Indonesia’s growing reliance on overseas supply even as bullion trades near record levels.

“Roughly 30 tons,” Antam President Director Achmad Ardianto told lawmakers during a parliamentary hearing in Jakarta on Monday.

Antam’s only operating mine in Pongkor, West Java, produces just 1 ton annually, far short of the company’s 2024 sales of 43 tons. The miner aims to lift that figure to 45 tons in 2025. To bridge the gap, Antam buys back about 2.5 tons a year from households and occasionally acquires gold from other miners that refine their output at its facilities, though pricing and tax disparities often make those deals unattractive.

“When B2B arrangements are not favorable, imports become the last option,” Ardianto said. He added that all imports are sourced from refineries accredited by the London Bullion Market Association and bought at international benchmark prices. Antam does not export bullion, he stressed, and focuses solely on meeting domestic demand.

The supply gap has coincided with record-setting prices in Indonesia. Antam’s retail bullion climbed Rp 7,000 on Monday to Rp 2.198 million ($134) per gram, the highest on record, while its buyback rate also rose to Rp 2.045 million per gram.

Globally, gold hit a record $3,728 per troy ounce on Monday, extending a rally that has doubled prices since late 2022 and lifted them more than 45 percent this year alone. The surge has been fueled by a mix of monetary and geopolitical factors. Gold, which typically benefits from lower borrowing costs and periods of uncertainty, has attracted robust investment inflows amid expectations of US Federal Reserve rate cuts, persistent geopolitical tensions, and accumulation from central banks.

According to the World Gold Council, gold prices rose 26 percent in US dollar terms in the first half of 2025, supported by a weaker greenback, range-bound rates, and global political risks. Central banks have been pivotal buyers, diversifying reserves away from the dollar after Western sanctions froze nearly half of Russia’s foreign holdings in 2022. Annual central bank net purchases have exceeded 1,000 tons each year since 2022, consultancy Metals Focus estimates, with 900 tons projected for 2025, about twice the pre-2022 average.

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