Indonesian nickel firm Merdeka Battery Materials (MBMA) made progress at its nickel assets during April-June, which will help bolster its nickel operations in the country.
MBMA — a subsidiary of Indonesian mining conglomerate Merdeka Copper Gold (MDKA) — mined 390,436 wet metric tonnes (wmt) of limonite ore and 241,033 wmt of saprolite ore at its Sulawesi Cahaya Mineral (SCM) mine during the quarter, it said on 2 August.
MBMA owns 51pc of the mine, with the remaining 49pc owned by China's largest stainless steel and nickel producer Tsingshan. The mine — considered one of the world's largest resources of contained nickel — contains 13.8mn t of nickel and 1mn t of cobalt, according to MDKA.
MBMA previously said it plans to supply saprolite and limonite ore from the SCM mine to its rotary kiln electric furnaces (RKEF) and high-pressure acid leaching (HPAL) plants, respectively, to produce nickel in the form of nickel pig iron (NPI) and mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP).
It is developing its first HPAL plant with China's key nickel-cobalt-manganese precursor manufacturer Brunp in the Konawe industrial park in southeast Sulawesi. MBMA expects the HPAL plant to start production in 2025 with a planned capacity of 120,000 t/yr of MHP, an intermediate product of nickel laterite.
The MHP is to be supplied to downstream precursor sector for use in battery production. "The HPAL plant will provide MBM with further exposure to the strategic materials and EV [electric vehicle] battery value chain and will benefit from the SCM mine's substantial limonite resource," MBMA said.
It is also upgrading a haul road from the SCM mine to Indonesia's Morowali industrial park (IMIP) in central Sulawesi, where it has two operating RKEF smelters, targeting for transportation of saprolite ore to begin in the July-September quarter.
The two operating RKEF smelters produced 9,725t of nickel in NPI during April-June, up by 3.8pc on the quarter. A year-on-year comparison is unavailable. MBMA also commissioned all four lines at the third smelter at IMIP during April-June, with a nameplate capacity of 50,000 t/yr of nickel in NPI. The third smelter is expected to produce 21,000-25,000t of nickel in NPI this year, after producing 2,145t in June.
The average realised NPI price in April-June was $14,123/t, MBMA said.
Construction activities at the SCM mine site, including a feed preparation plant and a slurry pipeline that will allow the mine to supply limonite feed to China-backed Huayue Nickel Cobalt's HPAL plant at IMIP, are also under way. MBMA expects this to finish by the end of this year.
Transport and sale of limonite ore from the SCM mine can commence after these projects are completed, MBMA said.
MBMA on 31 May completed its acquisition of a 60pc stake in Chinese nickel firm Huaneng Metal Industry (HNMI). HNMI owns and operates a high-grade nickel matte conversion facility at IMIP. It produced 14,379t of nickel in nickel matte in April-June.
MBMA is still looking to modify its existing RKEF smelters to produce low-grade nickel matte that can be used at HNMI's conversion facility, it said.
