Jakarta – Indonesia’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) will limit licences for the construction of class II nickel smelters, taking into consideration the supply and demand of nickel ore.
Irwandy Arif, Special Staff of the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources for the Acceleration of Mineral and Coal Governance, explained that the MEMR already has a plan to impose restrictions, to maintain a balance between the supply and demand of nickel ore, and prevent Indonesia from becoming a nickel ore importer.
He said the purpose of this moratorium is to ensure that smelters that are already operating continue to get nickel ore supply for their operational continuity. “The ministry also said that the government will no longer issue licences for the construction of smelters for the pyrometallurgical process for grade II nickel,” Arif said.
The pyrometallurgical process used in the nickel industry as well as the lithium battery recycling industry is a heated extraction process, while the hydrometallurgical process is an extraction process using water-based solvents.
“There are 44 smelters that use the pyrometallurgical process towards stainless steel and three smelters that use the hydrometallurgical process towards batteries. Nickel ore consumption for pyrometallurgy with saprolite is 210 million tonnes per year and limonate is 23.5 million tonnes per year,” Arif said.
For smelters currently under construction, when operational, they will require a nickel supply of more than 100 million tonnes per year. “In total, there are 116 smelters consisting of 97 pyrometallurgical smelters and 19 smelters towards hydrometallurgy,” said Arif.
Metallurgy professional association advisor Arif S Tiammar, supports the MEMR’s move to impose a moratorium on the construction of class II nickel smelters as a wise measure to control excessive production.
“The current production capacity is already extraordinarily large, even the amount based on 2022 data is 9 million tonnes of NPI (nickel pig iron) with a nickel content of 1.1 million tonnes per year. This makes Indonesia the world’s largest NPI producer. This production restriction is the first reason that I agree with a moratorium or restriction,” he said. (Hartatik)
Banner photo: A worker shows the result of nickel ore production in Sorowako, Indonesia (Kaisarmuda/shutterstock.com)