Apa yang sebenarnya bergerak
Indonesia forbade the export of unprocessed nickel ore, forcing anyone who wanted the metal to build a plant on Indonesian soil. Within a decade the country went from an ore supplier to the dominant producer of processed nickel, and the upper limonite layer that used to be waste became battery feedstock.
- Materialnya
- Nickel
- Varietasnya
- Limonite laterite, roughly 1.3% nickel, with recoverable cobalt
- Titik awal
- Indonesia — Sulawesi and Halmahera
Langkah demi langkah, perbatasan demi perbatasan
Indonesia · Sulawesi dipegang oleh Indonesian miners and joint ventures (Penambang)
Skimming the top of the profile
The limonite layer sits above the saprolite. It used to be stripped off and dumped to reach the higher-grade ore below; now it is the product.
Mengapa di sini: Same weathering process as New Caledonia, different layer of the same profile.
Indonesia · HPAL plant, Morowali or Obi dipegang oleh Plant operators (Kimia)
Dissolving it under pressure
Slurried ore goes into an autoclave with sulfuric acid at about 250 °C and 40 bar. Nickel and cobalt dissolve; iron stays behind as a residue.
Apa yang terjadi pada sisanya: The acid is made on site from sulfur, most of it imported. A nickel plant is quietly also a very large chemical plant.
Mengapa di sini: Because the ore export ban means it has to be. This industry exists in Indonesia by policy as much as by geology.
Indonesia · Same complex dipegang oleh Plant operators (Kimia)
Precipitating a shippable intermediate
Nickel and cobalt are precipitated together as mixed hydroxide precipitate — MHP — a green-grey filter cake that is compact enough to ship economically.
Mengapa di sini: MHP exists purely to solve a freight problem: you cannot ship a tank of pregnant leach solution across an ocean.
China · Chinese refineries dipegang oleh Refiners (Pemurni)
To a refinery
MHP is containerised and shipped to be redissolved and separated into individual metal salts.
Mengapa di sini: Sulfate refining and cathode precursor manufacture are co-located; the intermediate goes to where both already exist.
China · Precursor and cathode plants dipegang oleh Chemical and cathode makers (Produsen)
Sulfate, precursor, cathode
Redissolved and crystallised into nickel sulfate and cobalt sulfate, co-precipitated with manganese into a mixed hydroxide precursor, then lithiated and calcined into cathode powder.
Mengapa di sini: Precursor chemistry is the least visible and most concentrated step in the entire battery chain.
China · Cell and vehicle plants dipegang oleh Battery and vehicle manufacturers (Produsen)
Roughly 220 electric cars
At around 50 kg of nickel per high-nickel pack, 11 tonnes of contained nickel is on the order of two hundred cars.
Mengapa di sini: From a hillside in Sulawesi to a car park, in about five months.
Ini adalah contoh terhitung. Contoh ini mengikuti kuantitas awal yang dinyatakan melalui hasil dan perolehan tipikal yang dipublikasikan, sehingga proporsinya dapat diperiksa; ini bukan catatan pengiriman tertentu. Fakta rute — negara mana saja, proses apa saja, dan mengapa material tersebut tidak dapat begitu saja ditangani di tempat lain — dikompilasi dari laporan publik.