Vale Targets Tanamalia Project to Operate in 2029

Chief Sustainability & Corporate Affairs Officer PT Vale Indonesia Tbk Budiawansyah (Photo: Maria Trisnawati/VOI)

JAKARTA - PT Vale Indonesia Tbk. (INCO) said the Tanamalia project in East Luwu, South Sulawesi, is expected to start operating in 2029. Before entering the operation phase, the company will still carry out detailed exploration and project design.

Chief Sustainability & Corporate Affairs Officer of PT Vale Indonesia Tbk Budiawansyah said that in 2027 the project process would enter the detailed exploration stage through a second-stage exploration study. This stage was then followed by detailed design.

"2027 is the process of detailed exploration, exploration study phase 2 and later there will be detailed design," Budi told the media, Thursday, August 13.

Budi also emphasized that the determination of the operational target in 2029 was an estimate based on the company's estimates.

On the same occasion, Budi also responded to the emergence of community aspirations at the regional and national levels regarding the development plan of Tanamalia, especially because there are community agricultural activities in the area, PT Vale emphasized that it would listen to input from the community.

Budi explained that the development of mining projects cannot be carried out directly without going through a number of studies and stages. According to him, companies must ensure that environmental, disaster, and safety aspects of mining activities have been thoroughly studied.

He said the process was part of the project development phase, including Front End Loading (FEL) 2 and FEL 3. Data obtained in FEL 2 will be the basis for strengthening the study on FEL 3.

"The way we develop a project is that there are processes and stages that cannot just bring tools, dig, transport. So it has to be clear. We do ecological studies, we do disaster studies there," he explained.

For information, the Tanamalia Project is a development project of PT Vale Indonesia Tbk based on a Special Mining Business Permit (IUPK) and PPKH No. 885 of 2025 for exploration activities in forest areas.

This project optimizes the value of Indonesia's mineral resources while supporting national development and the development of nickel laterite.

Located in the Protected Forest and Limited Production Forest area of 13,556.8 Ha in Towuti District, East Luwu, South Sulawesi, exploration has been carried out gradually since 1970. In the future, the project is planned to enter detailed exploration (2025-2026), construction (2027-2028), and mining as soon as 2030, depending on the feasibility of the nickel reserves.