Integra to build nickel smelting plant

PT Integra Mining Nusantara will build nickel smelters in several locations in Sulawesi and Surabaya to comply with the government?s regulation which will ban export of unprocessed metal ores beginning 2014, Kontan reported.

Shelby Ihsan Saleh, the president of the company, said that the company was still preparing the construction of smelting plant. ?We have bought the equipment from China with a capacity of 200,000 tons per month,? he said.

He said that the company had stopped its nickel ore production since last year due to the government?s export restriction imposed ahead of the full implementation of the export ban in 2014. Previously, the company produced about one million ton a year.

Shelby, also the chairman of the Association of Nickel Indonesia (ANI), said that the export restriction had caused a sharp decline in exports to Japan and China, the main buyers of Indonesian nickel ores.

Last year, Indonesia exported one million tons of nickel ores a month or 12 million tons a year, mostly from Sulawesi.

This year, the export was targeted to reach 32 million tons.

?With export restriction, it will be difficult to achieve the target. It is good if we could achieve a half of the target,? he added.(*)