Posted on 24 Jun 2020
Yashi Indonesia’s first rotary kiln electric furnace – No.4 RKEF – started production on 22 June, Kallanish notes. This is the first of four ferronickel smelting production lines. The second one is expected to be completed in early July.
The Yashi project, with $3.84 million in investment from Zhengshi Holding Group (Zhengshi), is located in Indonesia’s Weda Bay industrial park. It will have capacity to produce 280,000 tonnes/year of ferronickel. The first phase of the project consists of four ferronickel smelting lines and started construction in March 2019. It is estimated that it could produce 35,000 t/y of nickel metal.
A separate project in Weda Bay industrial park, with total investment of nearly $10 billion from three shareholders including Zhengshi, is divided into two phases. The first phase of the project occupies half of the total investment.
Tsingshan is leading the project. It started construction of the first phase in August 2018. After commissioning, the project will house 12 pyrometallurgical nickel-iron production lines, one hydrometallurgical nickel smelter, and create over 10,000 jobs. The other investor in Weda Bay is France's Eramet.
