Ibris Nickel conducting FS for smelter project in Konawe

By Cepi Setiadi

Singapore based mineral mining company Ibris Nickel Pte. Ltd is currently conducting a feasibility study (FS) for its planned smelter project in Konawe, Southeast Sulawesi.

Agus Suhartono, Chief Operating Officer of Ibris Nickel Indonesia told Petromindo.com on Friday that the company is targeting to complete the FS before the year's end. Development of the project is expected to start next year.

"At the end of October, we will go to China to see the commissioning of the smelter plant, which will be used in our project in Konawe," he said.

A couple of months ago, the company signed an MoU with China?s Yong-Xing Alloy Materials Technology Taizhou Co., Ltd for the development of a smelter plant project in Konawe Utara.

The project will have a capacity of 6-8 million tons of nickel ores per annum, with the output of 600,000 metric tons of Nickel Pig Iron (NPI). The project has about US$1.8 billion of investment value.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak