Eramet to Double Nickel Production by Takeover of Indonesian Deposit

Jacques Bacardats, chairman & CEO of Eramet, French major ferroalloy supplier, revealed the plan to double the nickel production at a press conference in Tokyo on Tuesday. The firm plans to construct wet type refinery with about 60,000 tonnes of annual output capacity by acquisition of Halmahera deposit in Indonesia. Mr. Bacardats indicated that nickel demand would maintain strong for a while mainly for stainless steel and that Eramet would expand the supply capacity at both Halmahera and New Caledonia.Halmahera deposit is one of world largest undeveloped nickel mining areas. Eramet holds 95.48% share of the deposit through takeover bid in May. The deposit reserves 277 million tonnes of nickel ore with 1.49% purity. Eramet will advance the large development of the deposit with US$ 2 billion of investment at maximum after the research for operation and commercialization.Eramet will expand the nickel production by 15% to 68,000 tonne per year at the refinery in New Caledonia in 2006 from 2005. The firm is increasing the output capacity step by step from previous 60,000 tonnes to 75,000 tonnes per year through buildup of an enrichment plant and reinforcement of the deposit and a refining plant.Eramet expects that stainless steel production increases by 8.3% in 2006 from 2005 in the world. The firm forecasts world nickel supply would become surplus against demand by 22,000 tonnes in 2006, when nickel demand would increase by 5.3% and the supply increase by 4.7%, while the supply was surplus by 27,000 tonnes in 2005.