Chairman of the Indonesian Mining Institute, Irwandy Arif, revealed that at least 55 nickel smelters will be operating in Indonesia.

These 55 smelters consist of 49 Rotary Kiln-Electric Furnace (RKEF) smelters that will produce nickel pig iron (NPI) and 6 High-Pressure Acid Leaching (HPAL) smelters.

"Currently, around 36 smelters are still under construction" he said during a Mining Zone interview, quoted on Monday, January 6.

With the 36 new smelters being built, Irwandy projects that domestic nickel demand will increase by 185 million tons. The nickel demand from smelters already in operation reaches 300 million tons per year.

"So, what about the demand that will arise soon? The demand from the 36 new smelters will be around 185 million tons. So, if we add 300 million and 185 million, it’s almost 500 million" Irwandy added.

He further mentioned that Indonesia’s current nickel reserves, both saprolite and limonite, are only about 5 billion tons. Therefore, Irwandy urges the government to increase the country’s nickel reserves.

"Our reserves are only 5 billion tons. So, we need to increase the reserves first" he said briefly.

Furthermore, Irwandy said that in order to achieve a balance between supply and demand, both in Indonesia and globally, a strong commitment from the government is needed to implement good mining practices in the industry.

Not only that, he continued, the government also needs to regulate the production of steel and batteries, which are still wide open for development.

"But there is still one more thing that the government needs to focus on: the third nickel downstream pathway, which is how to create pure nickel metal. This is the most expensive of all, and it is used for the fast-growing aviation industry, which we have not yet developed" Irwandy concluded.