Sulawesi Mining to have nickel smelter in 2013
Thursday, November 22 2012 - 12:56 AM WIB
PT Sulawesi Mining Investment will have its own smelter with a processing capacity of one million tons of nickel ores per year in 2013.
?The smelter is located on a 200-Ha landsite inside our mining concession in Morowali, Central Sulawesi. Its construction progress right now has reached 80 percent. It?ll be completed next year,? PT Sulawesi Mining Investment Managing Director Poltak Sitanggang told Petromindo.com on the sidelines of Asia Nickel Conference in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Wednesday.
Poltak said that with the smelter the company would be able to produce its nickel ore products at the content of 7 percent nickel. ?Currently, our products? nickel content is only between 1.5 and 1.8 percent. We?ll increase the nickel content up to 7 percent with the smelter,? he said.
He noted that after the nickel content increased, then the products would be further processed into ferro-nickel and later into stainless steel.
He added that his company would tend to export their products to China and India. ?I?m not only doing business. I have an ideology. I want to develop a strong axis together with China and India so that we won?t be dictated by the market in the USA and Japan,? he said.
Editing by Benget Besalicto Tnb.