Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The government, in this case the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), revealed that the total number of raw mineral refining and processing facilities (smelters), especially for nickel commodities in Indonesia, both those already operating, under construction and wanting to be built, has accumulated at 116 smelters.
This was stated by the Special Staff of the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources for the Acceleration of Mineral and Coal Governance Irwandy Arif. He said that smelters with a pyrometallurgical process or smelters that process high grade nickel (saprolite) in Indonesia will reach 97 smelters,
Meanwhile, Irwandy also explained that there are 19 smelters with a hydrometallurgical process that uses low grade nickel (limonite).
“The total number of smelters available to date, not to mention the newest ones, is 116,” said Irwandy to CNBC Indonesia in the Mining Zone program, quoted Thursday (19/10/2023).
Irwandy said that the construction of class two pyrometallurgical nickel smelters is becoming more massive with plans to build 28 new smelters and 10 smelters with a hydrometallurgical process are currently in the planning stage.
“Respective needs are 130 million tons per year (pyrometallurgy) and 54 million tons per year (hydrometallurgy),” he concluded.
He said that for nickel through the pyrometallurgical process in Indonesia there are 44 smelters in operation, while for nickel through the hydrometallurgical process there are 3 smelters in operation.
Meanwhile, Irwandy said that currently there is still a nickel smelter under construction. He said that for the pyrometallurgical process there are 25 smelters being built and for nickel smelters using the hydrometallurgical process there are 6 smelters being built.
“There are 25 smelters under construction with ore consumption of 78 million tonnes per year. And towards the hydrometallurgical battery process there are 6 smelters under construction with ore requirements of 34 million tonnes per year,” he added.
Apart from that, he revealed that consumption of saprolite nickel in Indonesia reaches 210 million tons per year. Meanwhile, consumption of limonite reaches 23.5 million tons per year.
“So the consumption of nickel ore for pyrometallurgy which consumes high grade nickel ore, namely saprolite, is 210 million tons per year. And for hydrometallurgy towards batteries, it requires low grade nickel ore, namely limonite, amounting to 23.5 million tons per year ,” he stressed.
With the proliferation of pyrometallurgical nickel smelters in Indonesia, permits for the construction of class 2 nickel smelters will no longer be granted to carry out the class 2 nickel smelter moratorium plan.
“The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources already has plans to implement restrictions. Then the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Deputy for Investment and Mining Coordination, said that the government will no longer issue permits for the construction of smelters of the type for the pyrometallurgical process for class 2 nickel,” stressed Irwandy.
Previously, the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Kemenko Marves) revealed that Indonesia currently has nickel metal reserves of around 50-60 million metric tons.
Deputy for Investment and Mining Coordination at the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Septian Hario Seto, said that with this amount, the remaining life of Indonesia’s nickel reserves is estimated to be able to last around 25-30 years.
However, the remaining life of nickel reserves is estimated to decrease to 20 years following the start of the nickel smelter project which is currently under construction.
“The issue is production capacity now, we see that there is construction that is approximately (requiring) 1 million tons (of nickel metal), so maybe our capacity if the mine is ready to reach 1 million tons, that will make our reserves drop to 20 “Yearly, our target is to be able to maintain it for 20-25 years,” said Seto in CNBC Indonesia’s Sustainable Future Program, quoted on Wednesday (27/09/2023).
Therefore, currently the government is also trying to develop the electric vehicle battery recycling factory industry. The reason is, from this process at least 99% of the nickel can be extracted again.
“The existing technology can take 99% of the nickel from used batteries. So I think this is a plan that already has one recycling battery in Morowali, I think we also plan to build another. So in the end Indonesia will not only produce nickel from mining but also recycle,” he said.
[Gambas:Video CNBC]
Next Article
Chronology of DPR Spraying Nickel Bosses for Meetings Using Foreign Languages
(pgr/pgr)
Originally posted 2023-10-19 07:20:00.