Nickel

ANTAM’s nickel operating segment is comprised of ferronickel and nickel ore sales. Ferronickel production originated from the Company’s Southeast Sulawesi Nickel Mining Business Unit. Production of nickel ore originated from the nickel mine in Pomalaa, Southeast Sulawesi which was operated by the Southeast Sulawesi Nickel Mining Business Unit, nickel mine in East Halmahera which was operated by the North Maluku Nickel Mining Business Unit, and nickel mine in Gag Island, West Papua, operated by ANTAM’s subsidiary, PT Gag Nikel.

Nickel Ore Mining

ANTAM’s nickel operating segment is comprised of ferronickel and nickel ore sales. Ferronickel production originated from the Company’s Southeast Sulawesi Nickel Mining Business Unit. Production of nickel ore originated from the nickel mine in Pomalaa, Southeast Sulawesi which was operated by the Southeast Sulawesi Nickel Mining Business Unit, nickel mine in East Halmahera which was operated by the North Maluku Nickel Mining Business Unit, and nickel mine in Gag Island, West Papua, operated by ANTAM’s subsidiary, PT Gag Nikel.

At the end of 2020, ANTAM’s consolidated nickel reserves (considering the reserves of PT Gag Nickel) were recorded at 375.52 million wet metric tons (wmt) consisting of 328.41 million wmt of saprolite nickel ore and 47.11 million wmt of limonite nickel ore. ANTAM’s total consolidated nickel resources (considering the reserves of PT Gag Nikel) in 2020 was recorded at 1,438.08 million wmt consisting of 919.51 million wmt of saprolite ore resources and 518.57 million wmt of limonite ore resources.

ANTAM's nickel ore deposits are generally not very deep. Limonite nickel ore layer is above the saprolite layer. This makes limonite mining cheaper and limonite mining is complete before saprolite. Nickel ore is mined using the selective open pit mining method with backhoe equipment for excavation and trucks for transportation. No drilling or blasting is required in nickel ore mining or any complicated processing, other than drying and screening ore. In the ore screening process, large ore is obtained which requires additional processing to crush the nickel ore rock to the desired size.

ANTAM conducts open pit mining method with a selective mining to produce high grade and low grade nickel ore. Nickel ore is used for ore feed for Pomalaa ferronickel plant as well as being sold to domestic market. ANTAM sun dries its mined nickel ore before being screened to be crushed into desired size. Ore is transported using belt conveyor to the stockpile area before the end of being used in ferronickel processing or transported to domestic and export customers.

Land Clearing

Ore Digging

Ore Hauling

Ore Stockpile

Ore Shipment Unloading

Rotary Dryer

Rotary Reduction Kiln

Electric Furnace

Ferronickel Shot

Ferronickel Processing

One of ANTAM’s core strategies is to move downstream to produce higher added value processed products. The processed product currently produced by ANTAM in its nickel business line is ferronickel, which contains about 80% iron and 20% nickel. ANTAM’s ferronickel, which is differentiated as containing high or low carbon levels, is sold in the form of shots (pellets) to stainless steel producers.

ANTAM’s FeNi III Smelter Plant at Pomalaa

Ferronickel Production Process

To produce ferronickel, saprolite nickel ore were first treated to become calcine through a process that crushes, dries, heats and adds certain consumables to reduce acidity, using various machines.

ANTAM had 3 ferronickel smelters (FeNi II, III and IV) with 4 production lines with annual combined capacity of 27,000 TNi. Ferronickel processing in Pomalaa utilizes RKEF (Rotary Kiln Electric Furnace) method in which nickel ore is smelted in electric furnace to produce ferronickel in shots (pellets).