KONTAN.CO.ID - JAKARTA. Vale Base Metals has committed nearly $9 billion for investment in Indonesia, including for its development of high-pressure acid leaching (HPAL) plants for nickel, chief executive Deshnee Naidoo said on Thursday.

Through its local unit Vale Indonesia, the company is partnering with companies like China's Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co to build two HPAL plants on the island of Sulawesi to produce mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP) from nickel.

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"MHP as we all know is going to be the driving force unlocking midstream that would allow us to go downstream," Naidoo told participants at Indonesia Sustainable Forum in Jakarta.

As miners move further down the supply chain to process ores, she asked that car-makers invest further upstream to accelerate development of the electric vehicle production ecosystem.

For the Sorowako project, Vale and partners aim to produce 60,000 tonnes of nickel and 5,000 tonnes of cobalt in MHP per year, while the Pomalaa project is expected to produce 120,000 tonnes of nickel in MHP annually.

Editor: Yudho Winarto