Nickel Smelters In Indonesia Will Operate This Year, The Following Is The List

Nickel smelter in Indonesia (Unsplash)

YOGYAKARTA - The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) stated that one nickel smelter processing and refining facility in Indonesia is already operating this year from the target of four new smelters that will operate this year.

The smelter that is already operating belongs to PT Cahaya Modern Metal Industri (CMMI).

This nickel smelter is located in Cikande, Serang Banten and has been built 100 percent.

"The PT {Sinar} Modern Metal Industry smelter in Banten has now completed 100 percent physical construction and has carried out production activities," said the Director General of Mineral and Coal at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources in a press conference, Tuesday (26/10/2021).

According to data from the Directorate General of Mineral and Coal, the CMMI smelter is divided into two stages of the project where the first stage is projected to process 400,000 tons of nickel ore per year to 34,500 tons of Nickel Pig Iron (NPI) per year with a nickel metal (Ni) content of 11.5 percent. Initially, it was targeted to be operational in June 2020.

Then in the second stage, it is planned to process 800 thousand tons of nickel ore to 63,500 tons of NPI per year. This nickel smelter applies Rotary Kiln Electric Furnace (RKEF) technology.

The nickel smelter project began construction in the fourth quarter of 2018, with the groundbreaking running on April 11, 2019.

The reason is, the government targets 53 mineral smelters to be built and operational in 2024 from 2020 as many as 19 smelters.

In 2021, 23 smelters are targeted to operate, meaning there are an additional four new smelters that can operate this year.

Of the additional four smelters, three of them are nickel smelters and one lead and zinc smelter.

Ridwan even said that the other three smelters are still in the development stage and some have been built 100 percent but have temporarily suspended due to financial constraints.

He even detailed the three other smelters that were not yet operational, including:

PT Smelter Nickel Indonesia

The nickel smelter located in Banten has been built 100 percent and has successfully carried out a production trial. But at this time, according to him, the company's activities have temporarily suspended due to lack of funds for operations.

PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (ANTM)

The nickel smelter in East Halmahera, North Maluku, has built 97.7 percent. According to him, Antam's nickel smelter is still constrained by electricity supply.

Currently, according to him, PT Antam is working on electricity supply from PT PLN (Persero), so that this smelter can operate.

"PT Antam is also difficult, because physically construction has been completed, but there is no electricity supply yet. Antam is trying to immediately work with PLN to solve this electricity problem," he explained.

PT Kapuas Prima Citra

This lead and zinc smelter is in Central Kalimantan and has built 99.87 percent. But at this time we are waiting for specialist energy from China as a specialist in the smelter progress. It is planned that this specialist worker from China will come in October 2021.

So that's the nickel smelter in Indonesia, see other interesting news on VOI, it's time to revolutionize news!