実際に動いているもの
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.
- 素材
- Nickel
- 種類
- Limonite laterite, roughly 1.3% nickel, with recoverable cobalt
- 起点
- Indonesia — Sulawesi and Halmahera
工程ごと、越境地点ごとに
Indonesia · Sulawesi 保管者 Indonesian miners and joint ventures (採掘会社)
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.
なぜここか: Same weathering process as New Caledonia, different layer of the same profile.
Indonesia · HPAL plant, Morowali or Obi 保管者 Plant operators (化学)
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.
残りはどうなったか: The acid is made on site from sulfur, most of it imported. A nickel plant is quietly also a very large chemical plant.
なぜここか: 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 保管者 Plant operators (化学)
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.
なぜここか: MHP exists purely to solve a freight problem: you cannot ship a tank of pregnant leach solution across an ocean.
China · Chinese refineries 保管者 Refiners (精製業者)
To a refinery
MHP is containerised and shipped to be redissolved and separated into individual metal salts.
なぜここか: Sulfate refining and cathode precursor manufacture are co-located; the intermediate goes to where both already exist.
China · Precursor and cathode plants 保管者 Chemical and cathode makers (製造業者)
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.
なぜここか: Precursor chemistry is the least visible and most concentrated step in the entire battery chain.
China · Cell and vehicle plants 保管者 Battery and vehicle manufacturers (製造業者)
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.
なぜここか: From a hillside in Sulawesi to a car park, in about five months.
これは計算例である。公表された標準的な歩留まりと回収率を用いて、明示された出発量を追うものであり、比率は検証可能だが、特定の荷物の記録ではない。経路に関する事実——どの国を経由するか、どのような工程を経るか、なぜその素材を他の場所では処理できないか——は公開情報から編集している。