In November, 2009, Hanking Industrial Group Co., Ltd. Signed the Laterite Nickel Ore Project Development and Cooperation Agreement with Indonesia PT. BUMI MAKMUR SELARAS (Hereinafter referred to as “BMS”) and 308 Team of Yunnan Non-Ferrous Geological Bureau (Hereinafter referred to as “308 Team”), and successively acquired the shares of PT. Konutara Sejati (Hereinafter referred to as “KS”) , PT.Karyatama Konawe Utara (Hereinafter referred to as “KKU”) and PT.Konutara Prima (Hereinafter referred to as “KP”) , and then became the controlling shareholder of above three project companies.
Resource reserves
The mining area has a total area of 78 square kilometers. Taking the 1.0% nickel content as the boundary grade to define the ore body, the laterite nickel ore resource reserve is 334 million tons with the average grade of nickel is 1.34% and the grade of associated cobalt is 0.07%. According to the detailed survey report of 308 Team of Yunnan Non-Ferrous Geological Bureau, the project reserves of nickel metal is 4.53 million tons and cobalt metal is 270,000 tons. In July 2009, the mineral resources reserves assessment center of the Ministry of Land and Resources reviewed and authenticated the reserves. According to the Australian JORC standard, Australia CSA Company and SRK Company from China, exclusive third-party organizations, estimate that the nickel metal reserves of Block D and K East Block can reach 4.48 million tons, which is a world-class laterite nickel ore resource. In 2012, the Hatch company from Canada took our project as the second largest laterite nickel ore body in the world. And in the same year, Hanking Group acquired the Molore wharf, which is approximately 10 km away from east of the KS mineral area, with a total area of 45 hectares, and the Molore area is currently planned to be used for the construction of a nickel-iron smelter with an annual capacity of 260,000 tons, a supporting power plant and a barge terminal with a capacity of 10,000 tons. In 2013, Hanking Group acquired a new BSM mine, located about 15 km away from the east of the KKU mineral area, with a 3 square km mining area and a 4.7-hectare ores transportation terminal, which has eight berths with each is capable of docking up to 7,000 tonnes of barges.
Smelting planning
Relying on nickel ore resources, Hanking Group plans to build a new industrial park around the mining area——"Indonesia Hanking-BMS Industrial Park", which is based on nickel smelting and processing industrial cluster, characterized by regional resource integration and waste resource utilization, comprehensive supporting of production factors and coordinated development of community service functions. It is planned to form a multifunctional industrial park integrating mining, smelting, power plants, wharves, living quarters and other supporting facilities in 2022, complete the construction of annual output of 66,000 tons of nickel, 2 million tons of stainless steel, and alloy structural steel, as well as corresponding public and auxiliary facilities such as coke, power generation, comprehensive recycling of waste water and slag, etc.
This construction mainly includes 260,000 tons of nickel-iron (including 26,000 tons of nickel) smelting plant, 850,000 tons of stainless steel smelting plant, 180,000 tons of battery grade nickel sulfate and 8,000 tons of battery grade cobalt sulfate.
Hanking Indonesia nickel-iron Smelter will adopt the world's advanced and mature RKEF craft, which combines rotary kiln roasting and ore thermal furnace melting to produce nickel-iron ingot containing 10% nickel, with an annual output of 260,000 tons of nickel-iron (including 26,000 tons of nickel). This product can replace pure nickel as the main raw material of stainless steel smelting production.
Hanking Indonesia nickel ore also has a large amount of iron ore, and the iron ore resource is more than 100 million tons. It will make full use of this resource to build a stainless steel smelter with an annual output of 850,000 tons, producing 300 series of stainless steel billet for domestic stainless steel production and processing enterprises.
Battery nickel sulfate and battery cobalt sulfate are also one of the main products of Hanking Indonesia smelting project. It will use mature and advanced acid leaching process to produce 180,000 tons of nickel sulfate (including 40,000 tons of nickel) and 8,000 tons of cobalt sulfate (including 1,600 tons of cobalt) per year. At present, nickel and cobalt are the main raw materials for the cathode materials of "lithium nickel cobalt manganate" batteries. This kind of battery safety performance is high, the volume diversity, the use range is very wide, not easy to explode, the safety factor is very high. With the popularity of smart phones, ternary materials have developed strongly in recent years and are used in more and more fields. Nickel and cobalt are also cathode materials for lithium nickel-cobalt aluminate batteries, which are used in the Tesla Model S. This kind of battery has very high energy density and good low temperature performance, and it has a wide range of applications in the field of power battery. China is short of nickel and cobalt resources, while Hanking has huge nickel and cobalt resources. It will use these resources to produce battery nickel sulfate and cobalt sulfate products, which are sintered with lithium carbonate at high temperature to make battery cathode materials.
Indonesia plays an important role in ASEAN's economic development and is also China's strategic partner in the Belt and Road Strategy. The construction of the Hanking Indonesia project is in line with the Silk Road spirit of peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit in infrastructure, trade and investment, energy cooperation and other fields.
Nickel and cobalt metals are strategic resources for China and many countries in the world. Hanking owns and works on developing a world-class laterite nickel and cobalt ore resource in southeast Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. With the depletion of global nickel sulfide resources, laterite nickel ores are becoming increasingly important and have become the main source of nickel metal extraction and supply. In the past few years, the smelting technology of laterite nickel and cobalt ore (including hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy process) has become increasingly mature, and the smelting cost of laterite nickel and cobalt ore has been decreasing through process innovation. Grasp the serious imbalance of nickel and cobalt metal supply and demand structure in the next 5-10 years, quickly promote the Indonesian laterite nickel smelting project, seize the opportunity of market changes, will bring long-term stable returns for investors.
After many years of development, Hanking Indonesia laterite nickel ore project has gone through the period with the highest risk. All kinds of permits, forest-land, wharf, road and other work have been completed or basically completed, which has laid a good foundation for future investors. For investors, especially the downstream enterprises, the sufficient supply of the nickel pig iron, ferro-nickel and sulfuric acid products can meet the strategic needs of stainless steel producers and new energy battery manufacturers. Relying on powerful nickel resource advantage, Hanking will strive to become influential nickel and cobalt products manufacturers within a few years, and will continue to create more value for shareholders and investors.
Hanking Group has developed in China for more then 20 years. Hanking not only accumulated rich experience in the production, development and construction of mineral resources, but also accumulated capital, and meanwhile cultivated an elite teams engaged in mining production, development and construction. It provides the conditions and guarantees of manpower, financial resources and material resources to the international mining resources market. Through the joint development of super large quality nickel and cobalt resources, making full use of respective advantages and forming a strong alliance, Hanking Indonesia Project company strives to achieve the win-win goal of all parties, the government and the community.
