Mining and downstream company, Harita Nickel is committed to increasing added value through downstream nickel starting from high grade and low grade. This was revealed by the Director of Harita Group, Tonny H Gultom during the Indonesia Nickel Summit held by TAMBANG Magazine in Nusa Dua, Bali some time ago.

According to him, the processing of high grade nickel using Rotary Kiln Electric Furnace (RKEF) pyromatalurgical technology is under its two subsidiaries, namely PT Megah Surya Pertiwi and PT Halmahera Jaya Ferronickel (HJF).

In addition, the company, which is located in South Halmahera Regency, has also developed a low grade nickel refining system using Hydrometallurgical High Pressure Acid Leaching (HPAL) technology. The factory is under the control of PT Halmahera Persada Lygend (HPAL), which is also a subsidiary of Harita.

“This technology is a pioneer industry in Obi Island, North Maluku that utilizes low grade nickel as raw material (limonite). Before HPAL, low grade nickel was not utilized, only treated as overburden,” said Tonny. In the process, HPAL uses seawater and has low energy that is environmentally friendly. The extraction process involves leaching of limonite ore with sulfuric acid.

According to Tonny, the product from HPAL will be nickel sulfate which is predicted to reach 247,000 tons per year and cobalt sulfate to reach 32,000 tons per year. In addition, there are also intermediate products, namely Mixed Hydroxide Percipitate (MHP), a mixture of nickel and cobalt as raw material for electric vehicle batteries.

"The result of HPAL is Mixed Hydroxide Percipitate (MHP), the raw material for electric batteries," added the man who is familiarly called Gultom.

He went on to say that nickel is still primarily used as an ingredient in stainless steel whose market share is predicted to drop to 47% by 2050. This is because battery precursors for electric vehicles and energy storage are becoming increasingly important.

"In the future, the use of nickel is for electric batteries. Solar PV and electric vehicles will be massively developed, targeted to support the supply of 2 million four-wheeled vehicles and 13 million two-wheelers," he said.

Source:https://www.tambang.co.id/harita-nickel-komitmen-tingkatkan-nilai-tambah-melalui-hilirisasi