Eramet finalizes agreement with Tsingshan on Weda Bay project
Thursday, June 8 2017 - 10:16 AM WIB
French mining and metals group Eramet announced Thursday it has finalized an agreement with Chinese steel maker Tsingshan Group to develop the Weda Bay nickel deposit in Indonesia?s North Maluku Province.
Under the agreement, Tsingshan will hold 57 percent shares in Strand Minerals Pte Ltd, which owns the Weda Bay nickel project, while Eramet holds the remaining 43 percent, according to a press statement issued by Eramet.
?Tsingshan will expand its industrial set up in Indonesia, refining nickel ore through pyro metallurgical processes. Each partner will market its share of the production. Nickel ferroalloys sales are expected to start in 2020, for a nameplate capacity of 30,000 tons of nickel,? Eramet said in the statement.
The agreement follows a MoU signed by the two companies in February of 2017. Eramet had been seeking for a new partner for the nickel project after two Japanese partners, Mitsubishi Corp and Pacific Metals, sold their stakes to the French firm last year due to the downturn in the price of nickel. The agreement with Tsingshan will pave the way for the revival of the project, which had been temporarily suspended for three years following the nickel downturn.
Acquired by Eramet in 2006, Weda Bay is a nickel deposit with measured, indicated, and inferred resources valued at more than 9.3 million tons of nickel.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak