[Ferro-Alloys.com] 

Indonesia says nickel reserves enough for expansion, despite moratorium call

Indonesia’s nickel reserves are sufficient for expanded processing operations, an investment ministry official said on Wednesday

High-grade nickel reserves will last until 2035, with low-grade nickel supply sufficient until at least 2069, Mohamad Faizal, the ministry’s director for downstream strategic investment, said at a conference.

The reserves are sufficient to place Indonesia among the top five EV battery producers and top two stainless steel makers by 2040, he said. The southeast Asian nation’s first EV battery plant is set to finish construction this year.

The Indonesia Nickel Miners Association (APNI) has urged the government to impose a moratorium on new pyrometallurgy plants to extend the lifetime of high-grade reserves, its secretary-general, Meidy Katrin Lengkey, told the same conference.

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.

• [Editor:邢亚敏]