According to the latest report, South Korea’s LG Energy’s nickel processing plant in Indonesia broke ground on Wednesday, the plant is also part of LG Energy’s $9.8 billion investment in Indonesia to produce electric vehicle batteries.
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At a ceremony held at the Batang Industrial Park in Central Java, Indonesian President Jokowi said that Indonesia has the world’s largest nickel reserves and is aspiring to become a major producer of nickel-based products. And it stopped nickel ore exports in 2020 to attract foreign investment and develop its downstream industries. Jokowi said he also hopes to replicate the strategy in other natural resource sectors.
LG Energy executives said the company will build a $3.5 billion smelter with an annual output of 150,000 tons of nickel sulfate; it will also spend $2.4 billion to build a plant in the Batang Industrial Park that will produce 220,000 tons of precursors a year and 42,000 tons of cathodes to provide the main raw material for its upcoming battery factory in West Java.
In addition, the company will also sign an agreement in September with Indonesian state-owned miner Aneka Tambang (Antam) to jointly invest US$300 million to mine a nickel mine in Halmahera to produce 16 million tons of nickel ore.
