Ceria's Nickel Smelter Confirmed to Commission in Late 2024

Smelter (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Arifin Tasrif during his working visit provided the latest news regarding the progress of the nickel refining (smelter) project owned by PT. Ceria Nugraha Indotama (Ceria) in Kolaka Regency, Southeast Sulawesi.

Arifin revealed that the Ceria nickel smelter project is one of the National Strategic Projects (PSN) stipulated in Presidential Regulation (Perpres) Number 109 of 2020 concerning the Third Amendment to Presidential Regulation Number 3 of 2016 concerning the Acceleration of the Implementation of National Strategic Projects.

"I see the physical progress of the smelter project from Ceria, we hope that the mechanical completion can be completed in October and can be commissioned at the end of this year," he said as quoted on Thursday, July 4.

The smelter project in question is a smelter with Rotary Kiln Electric Furnace (RKEF) technology, which in the initial stage built 1 production line (1 x 72 MVA) to process saprolite nickel ore, and in the future will be built as many as four production lines (4 X 72 MVA) in stages with a production capacity of 252,700 tons per year.

The smelter will later receive electricity supply from PT PLN (Persero) with a total capacity of 414 MVA (352 MW) which has been agreed upon with the Power Purchase Agreement (PJBTL), whose electricity supply will begin to be distributed in stages this year.

Furthermore, Arifin emphasized that the government hopes that mineral refining industry players must be able to develop an ecosystem for the final electrification product, because Indonesia has very valuable mineral resources.

"We must anticipate, how this domestic industry can develop, our ideals of electrification can be achieved, this nickel is of course in the NCM (Nickel Cobalt Manganese) battery axis, we have nickel, then our limonet also has significant cobalt content, then we also still have manganese sources in East Nusa Tenggara, now this is what we must integrate," added Minister Arifin.

Meanwhile, Ceria Group CEO Derian Sakmiwata revealed that the RKEF Ceria line 1 smelter will operate in the next two to three months.

"The furnace size is 72 MVA, which will later input 1.4 million metric tons of raw minerals per year at a grade of 1.59," he explained.

Derian said, it was Ceria's initial step, and RKEF still has a target to build 4 RKEF lines that will be built in stages, and will also build a smelter with HPAL (High Pressure Acid Leaching) technology and all CERIA industrial activities are guided by the principles of Environment, Social and Governance (ESG).

"Currently Ceria is also actively implementing IRMA (Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance), this is Ceria's way of upgrading its operating pattern to pay more attention to environmental and social aspects in more detail to prevent historical dangers that could happen again and prevent dangers that will happen," he said.