PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Commissioning of a 380 MW power plant within the Indonesia Weda Bay Industrial Park (IWIP) has started, ASX-listed Nickel Industries reported on Monday.
The power plant will feed the Angel nickel project, in which Nickel Industries holds an 80% interest.
The company said on Monday that commissioning of the Angel Nickel power plant was ahead of schedule and followed the early commissioning of the project’s four rotary kiln electric furnace (RKEF) lines between January and May this year, well ahead of the contracted delivery month of October 2022.
Angel Nickel has been operating at approximately 80% of nameplate capacity, restricted by power availability within the IWIP electricity grid. However, with its own power source coming online, production levels at the project are expected to increase to approximately 130% of nameplate capacity, in line with the historical outperformance above nameplate capacity of the company’s established Hengjaya and Ranger RKEF projects.
Additionally, by having its own power source, Angel Nickel’s four RKEF lines are expected to benefit from a saving of approximately 20% on electricity charges, which currently account for approximately 25% of total operating cash costs.
“The early commissioning of the Angel RKEF lines more than six months ahead of schedule allowed us to significantly bring forward nickel production. With Angel’s power plant now commissioned this should allow us to ramp up to approximately 130% of nameplate capacity, which will greatly increase nickel metal production and assist to materially decrease Angel's operating costs,” said Nickel Industries MD Justin Werner.
Each of Angel’s RKEF lines has a nameplate capacity of 9 000 t/y of nickel metal, equating to 750 t of nickel metal a month.