RI Will Have 55 Nickel Smelters, Enough Reserves?

Illustration (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

Chairman of the Indonesian Mining Institute, Irwandy Arif, revealed that at least 55 nickel smelters will operate in Indonesia.

The 55 smelters consist of 49 Rotary Kiln-Electric Furnace (RKEF) smelters which will produce nickel pig iron (NPI) and 6 High-Pressure Acid Leaching (HPAL) smelters.

"There are still around 36 smelters under construction," he said in the Mining Zone quoted Monday, January 6.

With the presence of the 36 new smelters under construction, Irwandy projects that domestic nickel demand will increase by 185 million tons. The need for nickel in smelters that are already operating reaches 300 million tons per year.

"How much more needs will it be? The need for 36 smelters is only around 185 million. So if 300 million plus 185 million, it's almost 500 million," continued Irwandy.

He further added that currently nickel reserves are only 5 billion tons of saprolite and limousine. For this reason, Irwandy encouraged the government to increase nickel reserves.

"Our reserves are only 5 billion. So we have to add more reserves first," he said briefly.

Furthermore, Irwandy said, in order to achieve a balance between su Nah but this could lead to a balance between supply and demand both in Indonesia and in the world, a strong desire from the government to implement good mining practices that are good in mining.

Not only that, he continued, the government also needs to regulate production for steel and batteries which are still considered wide open.

"But there is still one thing that the government has to try to do, the third route downstream nickel is how to create pure nickel metals whose prices are quite expensive from all of them being used for the fast-flying industry that we don't have yet," said Irwandy.