Indonesian conglomerate Bakrie & Brothers, also known as Bakrie Group, said it is looking to acquire a nickel mine in Sulawesi to supply a planned integrated industrial park to produce electric vehicle batteries, reported Reuters. 

Last month, Bakrie launched the Indo-pacific Net-zero Battery-materials Consortium (INBC) with Chinese energy firm Envision and global miner Glencore to explore investment into an industrial park for the global nickel supply chain. 

CEO Anindya Bakrie said the planned 2,000-hectare park will need $9 billion worth of investments for everything from nickel smelting to manufacturing batteries. Bakrie plans to acquire a nickel mine in central or southeast Sulawesi to supply the park. 

"[The mine will] have enough reserves for around 140 Gigawatt-hours (of batteries) in the next 25 years," said Gilarsi W. Setijono, chief executive of Bakrie Group's EV distributor unit PT VKTR Teknologi Mobilitas.

INBC has set a target to start producing nickel-based precursors by 2026, with an annual capacity equivalent to 120 GWh to be sold to Britain and European markets.

It also aims to produce 20 GWh worth of EV batteries per year by 2028 for both domestic and export markets.

The consortium will launch a pre-feasibility study in March and firm up each company's investment afterwards, Setijono said, noting that Bakrie hopes to become a controlling stakeholder.

Once a major exporter of nickel ore, Indonesia stopped outbound shipments of the raw material in 2020 to make sure investors have enough for domestic processing. 

Source: Reuters