Ibris Nickel to export 2.5 million tons of nickel this year
Friday, October 12 2012 - 01:02 AM WIB
Ibrahim Risjad Nickel Pte Ltd (Ibris Nickel) expects it will be able to export 2.5 million tons of nickel ores this year from the company?s nickel mine in Molore, Southeast Sulawesi.
The company?s Chief Operating Officer Agus Suhartono said that Ibris Nickel had secured export quota of 750,000 tons of raw material for every three months from the government since July.
?About 80 percent of our nickel production are exported to China and Australia,? Agus told Petromindo.com . He said that the prices of the company?s nickel exports were based on the prices quoted at the London Metal Exchange (LME).
Agus also said that the company would build a smelting plant in the Bulungan industrial zone in East Kalimantan. ?The company has completed a feasibility study and is now in the process of acquiring land,? he added.
He hoped the construction of the smelting plant could be commenced soon so it could begin operation at the end of 2014. According to him, the smelter will have an annual capacity to process 40,000 tons of nickel ores into pig iron.
Ibris Nickel operates a nickel mine of about 2,000 hectares in Molore, Southeast Sulawesi. The mine began production in 2010.
Editing by Adianto P. Simamora