LG New Energy Builds Nickel Processing Plant in Indonesia

South Korea's LG Energy Solution on Wednesday broke ground on a nickel processing plant in Indonesia as part of a planned $9.8 billion investment in the country to produce batteries for electric cars.

LG New Energy executives told Indonesian President Joko Widodo at a ceremony at the Batang Industrial Park in Central Java that the company would build a $3.5 billion nickel sulphate smelter with a capacity of 150,000 tons a year.

The company will also build a $2.4 billion plant at batang Industrial Park to produce 220,000 tons of precursors and 42,000 tons of cathodes per year. This will provide the main raw material for a $3.6bn 200 gigawatt hour battery plant the company plans to build in Karawang, an industrial town in West Java.

LG New Energy will sign an agreement in September with State-owned Miner Aneka Tambang (Antam) to jointly invest in a $300m nickel mine on Halmahera Island in the east, producing 16m tonnes of nickel ore, said Lee Bang-soo, PRESIDENT of LG New Energy.