Jakarta (ANTARA) - Member of the National Energy Council (DEN) Satya Widya Yudha encouraged the construction of a smelter to transform nickel ore into ferronickel (FeNi) in Indonesia in a bid to increase the value of the commodity.
In his statement here on Monday during a work visit to a nickel smelter factory owned by PT Virtue Dragon Nickel (VDNI) in the Konawe Industrial Area, Morosi Village, Southeast Sulawesi, Yudha outlined various factors to be taken into account during the management of nickel until its processing.
These factors include nickel ore supply, energy supply, other assistance required by current or potential investors, who would build the smelters, as well as calculation of the required energy to produce FeNi.
"Smelters to be built would have a positive chain reaction in the economy, with the existence of supplier and other supporting industries, and it would also create jobs," Yudha elaborated.
According to Yudha, the next challenge would be to make smelter products in the form of nickel pig iron (NPI) from Virtue Dragon to be absorbed by its derivative industries.
Meanwhile, External Affairs Manager of VDNI Indrayanto expressed gratitude over DEN's work visit.
As a company that is considered as a national vital object within the mineral and coal sub-department, VDNI's nickel smelter has utilized advanced and eco-friendly rotary kiln electric furnace processing technology, he remarked.
Indrayanto noted that in 2020, VDNI was capable of producing 7.28 million tons of nickel ore.
With VDNI's production capacity reaching one million tons of FeNi, it was recorded that production had clocked 674 thousand tons.
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