Webinar: The decade 2014 to 2024 for nickel processing in Indonesia - Production trends, new developments and sustainability issues

This engaging webinar will cover the evolution of nickel exploration and production in Indonesia, beginning with early exploration work at Soroako in the 1920s. It will trace the subsequent studies under Government contract by PT Inco in the 1960s, through to more recent geological investigations.

Indonesia now has large proven reserves of nickel as nickel laterite – 55 million tonnes of contained nickel, or 42% of world reserves, up from 16.2 million tonnes of nickel, or 11% of world nickel in 1995. Amid a nickel shortage and peak pricing in 2007, Indonesia began increasing nickel output, supported by the Government ban in 2009 on exporting un-processed nickel ore plus large Chinese investments.

The webinar will also explore how nickel laterite ore is currently processed in Indonesia by both pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy technologies. Currently, there are twenty-two pyrometallurgical plants, with an installed capacity of 1.1 million tonnes of nickel as ferronickel, nickel mattes and nickel pig iron, while there are six hydrometallurgical plants (referred to as HPAL plants) with an installed capacity of 231 thousand tonnes of nickel as mixed hydroxide precipitates; total mined nickel in Indonesia was 1.8 million tonnes in 2023.

It will discuss future developments, including a further ten potential HPAL plants either under design or in construction, having an estimated capacity of 619.5 thousand tonnes of nickel. Importantly, environmental issues in nickel processing are also now under review by Government and industry. These include safe disposal of HPAL residues, carbon emissions, plant working conditions and so on.

This paper, as presented in the webinar, reviews progress and aspects in nickel production in Indonesia over the last decade and discusses important issues and expected changes over the coming decade.