Ibris Nickel, the Singapore-based nickel miner with assets in Sulawesi, Indonesia is partnering with China's Yong-Xing Alloy Materials Technology Taizhou to build a nickel processing facility in North Konawe,South East Sulawesi province, Indonesia. The memorandum of understanding was signed on Wednesday. It was reported that according to Ibris chief executive, Arwan Ahimsa that construction will cost in the region of US$1.8 billion. Mr. Ahimsa said that the facility will have the capacity to process up to 8 million tons of nickel and produce 600,000 tons of nickel pig iron a year. Indonesia has plans to put in a regulation by 2014 that mineral commodities must be processed locally before shipping abroad, this new investment by Ibris is in line with the government's upcoming regulation. However, many uncertainties hover on whether the government will go ahead with the regulation, as few mining companies have plans to build smelters.
