Vale’s Pomalaa HPAL Nickel Smelter Project Completed, Commissioning Set to Begin
Fri 14 Aug 2026, 15:34 PM
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PT Vale Indonesia Tbk. (INCO) announced that construction of the nickel smelter infrastructure at the Pomalaa Block has been completed. The company is now awaiting initial testing before proceeding to the commissioning stage.
Vale Director and Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer Budiawansyah explained that the high-pressure acid leach (HPAL)-based hydrometallurgical smelter in Pomalaa has entered the mechanical completion stage, with construction reaching 100%.
Budiawansyah said the inauguration and commissioning of the HPAL smelter at the Pomalaa Block are still awaiting the final testing stage.
“In the context of mechanical completion, it has been completed, it’s already 100%. Mechanical completion means the construction process has been mechanically completed; what remains is testing and commissioning,” Budiawansyah said at a media briefing in South Jakarta on Thursday (August 13, 2026).
“It won’t take long [for the testing]. As for the celebration, it’s just a matter of when we want to hold it. What matters is that the physical facility is ready to operate,” he stressed.
Budi explained that the Pomalaa smelter has a production capacity of around 120,000 tons of nickel content in mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP), requiring 21 million tons of limonite ore per year and 720,000 tons of saprolite per year.
He said the Pomalaa smelter is expected to absorb around 10,679 workers during the construction stage and 3,017 workers during operations.
The total investment is estimated at USD 3.4 billion, with Vale partnering with Huayou and Ford in the construction of the smelter.
Meanwhile, the mine at the Pomalaa Block has been operating since the first quarter of 2026, with annual production of around 7 million tons of saprolite ore and 21 million tons of limonite ore. Currently, production from the Pomalaa mine has reached 2 million tons of saprolite and 2.1 million tons of limonite.
Previously, Budi indicated that the company was targeting the domestic electric vehicle (EV) battery market, as the HPAL smelter in Pomalaa is set to begin operations in the third quarter of 2026.
Budi said the company is currently focused on completing the project’s construction, including exploring potential product uptake with business partners.
However, he said the project could become an important part of establishing a domestic EV battery industry ecosystem.
Moreover, the intermediate product produced, MHP, is an initial raw material in the EV battery supply chain.
“Regarding the offtaker, we are focused on delivering the project because, basically, we are discussing with our partners and also where we will take this downstreaming process. Because, fundamentally, the government wants to see the formation of an industrial ecosystem [for EV batteries] domestically,” Budiawansyah told the media in mid-March.
“Because we see that the MHP-based EV supply chain is still quite long from MHP to battery packing. So, in any case, we are coordinating with the government on how to continue realizing an integrated battery ecosystem in Indonesia,” he stressed.
On February 28, 2026, Vale sold the first nickel ore from the mine at the project. The company is targeting production of 300,000 tons of limonite per month, or around 9,677 tons per day.
On the other hand, the IGP Morowali smelter project has entered the operational progress stage. The Bahodopi Block, covering 22,699 hectares, reportedly began operations in the first quarter of 2025.
For the mining sector, Phase 1 construction has reached 100%, and the company is now focused on preparing for the completion of Phase 2, which is targeted for 2027. Vale said that in early 2026, 2.2 million tons of ore had been sold from the project.
Meanwhile, construction of the HPAL plant developed in partnership with GEM and EcoPro, with a capacity of 66,000 tons of MHP per year, has reached 36% and is targeted for completion in March 2027. The project’s total investment amounts to USD 2 billion.
In South Sulawesi, Vale and Huayou are developing the IGP Sorowako Limonite project at the 70,566-hectare Sorowako Block to support the downstream processing of limonite nickel.
As of June 2026, mine construction had reached 50%, while progress on the HPAL plant stood at 19%.
The facility is designed to have a production capacity of 60,000 tons of MHP per year and is targeted for completion in December 2027.
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