Loyal Metals Australia Acquisition Strengthens Bumi Resources’ Strategy to Expand Its Non-Coal Business
ICN News – PT Bumi Resources Tbk (BUMI) is entering a new chapter in its business journey. For many years, BUMI has been known as one of Indonesia’s largest coal producers. Today, however, the company is demonstrating broader ambitions: building a mining portfolio that is not solely dependent on coal, but also encompasses gold, copper, lithium and other strategic minerals.
Its latest move further reinforces this direction. Through its subsidiary, Bumi Resources Australia Pty Ltd (BRA), BUMI has completed the acquisition of 100% of Loyal Metals Ltd, an Australia-based mineral mining company.
The transaction was completed on 4 September 2026 at a value of approximately A$79.07 million, or around Rp1 trillion. BRA acquired 175.71 million Loyal Metals shares, meaning that BUMI now indirectly owns 100% of the company.
Australia Becomes BUMI’s Gateway to Global Minerals
Highway Reward is one of the most attractive assets within Loyal Metals’ portfolio. The company has previously stated that it is revitalizing the copper gold mine, which has a significant production history. Loyal Metals reported that Highway Reward has a historical production record of approximately 3.65 million tonnes of ore at a grade of 5.7%, as well as approximately 260,000 tonnes at a gold grade of 4.5 grams per tonne. The project is located around 37 kilometers south of Charters Towers, Queensland.
For BUMI, the acquisition provides an opportunity to establish a mineral business platform in Australia. More importantly, the expansion gives BUMI operational experience and access to networks in one of the world’s major mining jurisdictions.
BUMI also already has mineral activities in Australia through Wolfram Limited and other strategic holdings. With the addition of Loyal Metals, the company has the potential to create synergies in infrastructure, technical workforce, mining contractors and logistics networks in Queensland.
Therefore, the acquisition of Loyal Metals should not simply be viewed as the purchase of a single mining company. For BUMI, it represents part of a broader effort to build a mineral mining platform in Australia.
Major Target: Non-Coal EBITDA Above 50%
What makes BUMI’s strategy even more interesting is the company’s long-term target. BUMI’s management is targeting the contribution of EBITDA from non-thermal-coal businesses to exceed 50% by 2031. This means that over the coming years, BUMI intends to transform its business structure so that coal will no longer be the company’s sole primary growth engine.
This target will certainly not be easy to achieve. BUMI remains a company with a very strong coal foundation. Nevertheless, its strategic direction is becoming increasingly clear: coal will remain an important source of cash flow and operational strength, while minerals are being positioned as one of the company’s future growth engines.
This strategy is increasingly relevant amid changes in the global mining industry. Coal continues to play an important role in the world’s energy system, but major mining companies are increasingly expected to maintain more diversified portfolios.
Gold has characteristics as a high-value asset and is often regarded as a hedge during periods of economic uncertainty. Meanwhile, copper and lithium have strategic importance for electrification, electric vehicles, power grids, energy storage and future technologies.
Therefore, BUMI’s expansion into minerals can be viewed as an effort to prepare the company for changes in the structure of global commodity demand.
2026 Performance Provides a Foundation for Expansion
Interestingly, BUMI is pursuing this expansion while its operating performance in early 2026 continues to show growth. In the first quarter of 2026, BUMI recorded revenue of approximately US$417.7 million, up 19.7% from the same period a year earlier. Net profit attributable to owners of the parent entity reached approximately US$24.1 million, representing an increase of around 35.2%.
Operationally, BUMI produced approximately 19.2 million tonnes of coal in the first quarter of 2026 and sold approximately 19.1 million tonnes. Production increased by around 12%, while sales rose approximately 14% compared with the first quarter of 2025.
Another notable development is the increasingly visible contribution from the mineral business. In the first quarter, approximately 83.37% of BUMI’s revenue came from coal, amounting to around US$348 million. Meanwhile, approximately 16.63%, or US$69.4 million, came from the mineral segment, primarily gold and silver. Gold sales alone reached approximately US$66.73 million.
These figures demonstrate that BUMI’s diversification is not merely a strategic concept. Its mineral business is already making a tangible contribution to the company’s revenue.
From Coal to a Multi Mineral Company
Looking at BUMI’s development over the past several years, the company’s diversification strategy has become increasingly consistent. The company is not only maintaining its coal business through major assets such as Kaltim Prima Coal and Arutmin Indonesia, but is also increasing its exposure to minerals, including gold and copper.
The acquisition of Loyal Metals adds a new dimension because BUMI is now gaining access to Australian mineral assets. At the same time, BUMI’s existing mineral projects could become new sources of growth as their development and production scale up.
Ultimately, this strategy could change the market’s perception of BUMI. From a company widely associated with coal, BUMI has the potential to evolve into a more diversified natural resources company.
Funding and Execution Challenges
The approximately Rp1 trillion acquisition is also interesting from a financing perspective. Based on reports regarding the transaction, BUMI used a loan facility of approximately US$54 million from Glencore Australia Holdings Pty Limited, while the remaining approximately Rp46.46 billion was funded from the company’s internal cash.
This funding structure indicates that BUMI is seeking to maintain financial flexibility while continuing to pursue an aggressive expansion strategy. However, BUMI’s biggest challenge going forward is not simply acquiring mineral assets, but developing those assets into productive mines capable of generating sustainable cash flow.
For the Highway Reward Copper Gold Mine, management has indicated that revenue contribution is targeted to begin in the second year following the acquisition. Meanwhile, the lithium assets remain at the exploration stage, meaning the timing of revenue contribution cannot yet be determined until exploration and evaluation processes have been completed.
This means that investors and the industry should view the acquisition as a medium- to long-term investment rather than a corporate transaction that will immediately generate significant revenue.
BUMI Enters a New Game
With the acquisition of Loyal Metals, BUMI appears to be entering a new game. Coal remains the company’s main foundation and an important source of revenue. However, on top of that foundation, BUMI is beginning to build a new layer of businesses involving gold, copper, lithium and other minerals.
If the strategy succeeds, BUMI could evolve beyond being a major Indonesian coal company and become a diversified, multi-commodity mining company with an international footprint. The approximately Rp1 trillion acquisition of Loyal Metals may appear relatively small compared with BUMI’s overall business scale. Strategically, however, the transaction carries much greater significance.
BUMI is buying into the future and Australia is becoming one of its gateways, minerals are serving as the vehicle for diversification, while coal remains the engine supporting the journey.
The next challenge is how BUMI will transform these assets into actual production, revenue and EBITDA. If its target of generating more than 50% of EBITDA from non-coal businesses by 2031 is achieved, BUMI’s transformation from a coal-focused company into a global diversified mining company could become one of the most compelling developments in Indonesia’s mining industry.
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