Nickel processing plant to be built in SE Sulawesi

Antara News, Saturday, December 25, 2010

Kendari (ANTARA News) - The Southeast Sulawesi provincial administration established cooperation with foreign and national companies to build a nickel processing plant in the region.

"The cooperation is contained in a memorandum of understanding between Jilin Horoc Nonferrous Metal Group Ltd of China and PT Billy Indonesia on December 15, 2010," Southeast Sulawesi Governor Nur Alam said here on Thursday.

Nur said under the MoU, Jilin will keep 100 million US dollars at Bank Pembangunan, Southeast Sulawesi office, before building a stainless steel plant.

He said the cooperation is aimed at managing the nickel potential in the region, including southeast Sulawesi, and the potential in the thousands of hectares of mining fields under the control of PT INCO but still unprocessed.

He said the cooperation is an implementation of Law No 4 of 2009 on mineral and coal mining which does not export the mining products in the form of basic material.

"Thus we no longer export ferro nickle in its raw material, but after processing first, so that it produced a relatively high added value," he said.

This cooperation is expected to boost the region`s income in the form of tax and provide employment to locals, and therefore beneficial to the government and for the welfare of the people, especially those living near the mines, without harming the environment.