JAKARTA : Indonesia’s nickel reserves are sufficient to support processing industries for the coming decades, an investment ministry official said on Wednesday, amid calls of restricting construction of new smelters due to a global glut.
Indonesia’s high-grade nickel reserves is estimated to last until 2035, while its low-grade nickel until at least 2069, Mohammad Faizal, director for downstream strategic investment at Investment Ministry, told an industry conference in Jakarta organised by consultancy Mysteel.
Indonesia’s high-grade 1.7 per cent nickel ore is mainly used for the country’s nickel pig iron (NPI) production, a feedstock for stainless steel, while lower grade is used to make products for the electric vehicles batteries.
Indonesia banned exports of nickel ore in 2020 to encourage domestic value-addition, which resulted in massive investment into the production of nickel pig iron (NPI) as well as into production of material for electric vehicles batteries.
“These show potential for further expansions in both stainless steel and high-pressure leaching acid plant,” Faizal told participants, referring to the process of extracting material for batteries.
The reserves would be enough to help Indonesia to be among the top five EV battery producing countries by 2040 and top two stainless steel makers, he said.
On the sideline of the conference, Faizal added that smelters can continue to be built, but to produce different types of products.
Indonesia was blamed for the 45 per cent drop in nickel prices last year due to oversupply, which is squeezing producers in Australia and elsewhere.
A senior campaign official with president-elect Prabowo Subianto said he had proposed a moratorium for new smelters to the incoming president, but no decision has been made yet.
Last year, Indonesia’s nickel miners association APNI warned that the country’s high-grade ore reserves may be depleted in around six years.
