The Weda Bay Industrial Park is a

nickel mining A nickel mine is a mining, mine that produces nickel. Some mines produce nickel primarily, while some mines produce nickel as a side-product of some other metal that has a higher concentration in the ore. Geology Nickel occurs in two general typ ...

and

industrial park An industrial park, also known as industrial estate or trading estate, is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more heavyweight version of a business park or office par ...

complex in

Central Halmahera Regency Central Halmahera Regency (; ) is a regency of North Maluku Province, Indonesia. The regency was originally formed on 15 August 1990 from part of the former North Maluku Regency, but on 25 February 2003 parts of the new regency were split off to ...

North Maluku North Maluku (; ) is a province of Indonesia. It covers the northern part of the Maluku Islands, bordering the Pacific Ocean to the north, the Halmahera Sea to the east, the Molucca Sea to the west, and the Seram Sea to the south. It shares marit ...

, Indonesia. The Weda Bay Mine is now among the largest nickel mines in the world.

History

Nickel deposits were discovered in the Weda Bay area in Central Halmahera in 1996, and a joint venture between Canada-based Weda Bay Minerals and

Antam PT Aneka Tambang Tbk, colloquially known as Antam, is an Indonesian mining company. The company primarily produces gold and nickel, and is the largest producer of nickel in Indonesia. Until 2017, Antam was a directly state-owned company, before ...

(10%) was established in 1997. French mining group

Eramet Eramet is a French multinational mining and metallurgy company, listed on the Euronext Paris exchange under the symbol ERA. The company produces non-ferrous metals and derivatives, nickel alloys and superalloys, and high-performance special stee ...

acquired the Canadian stake in 2006, and planned to develop the site, but due to low mineral prices the project was put on hold in 2013. In 2017, China's Tsingshan Group signed an agreement, giving it a 57% stake in Weda Bay Minerals, and giving Tsingshan the responsibility to develop mineral processing while Eramet retained its mining operations. Construction of the industrial park began in April 2018, with mining operations commencing in October 2019 and metallurgical production in April 2020. As of 2020, four nickel

ferroalloy Ferroalloy refers to various alloys of iron with a high proportion of one or more other elements such as manganese (Mn), aluminium (Al), or silicon (Si). They are used in the production of steels and alloys. The alloys impart distinctive qualitie ...

production lines are active in the industrial park, with undergoing development of a cobalt-nickel refining complex. A

nickel sulphate Nickel(II) sulfate, or just nickel sulfate, usually refers to the inorganic compound with the chemical formula, formula NiSO4(H2O)6. This highly soluble turquoise coloured salt (chemistry), salt is a common source of the Ni2+ ion for electroplatin ...

plant is also slated for construction in the park. Eramet signed an agreement with German chemicals company

BASF BASF SE (), an initialism of its original name , is a European Multinational corporation, multinational company and the List of largest chemical producers, largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters are located in Ludwigshafen, Ge ...

in 2020, to develop a nickel-cobalt refinery. This agreement was terminated by BASF in June 2024.

Workforce

The industrial park employed around 11,000 people as of 2020. In early 2022, the park reported that this figure has increased to 28,000 Indonesian and 1,800 foreign workers.

Mine

The Weda Mine was opened in October 2019 and is now the largest nickel mine in the world, with production from October through December of 2019 of half a million tonnes of nickel ore. It reported sales in 2021 of over 21 Mwt (million wet tonnes) from its mine. The ore is disseminated nickel as fine-grained manganese-nickel silicates in a

laterite Laterite is a soil type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by intensive and prolo ...

soil. The nickel is found as

garnierite Garnierite is a general name for a green nickel ore which is found in pockets and veins within weathered and serpentinized ultramafic rocks. It forms by lateritic weathering of ultramafic rocks and occurs in many nickel laterite deposits in the ...

as is associated with the iron minerals

limonite Limonite () is an iron ore consisting of a mixture of hydrated iron(III) oxide-hydroxides in varying composition. The generic formula is frequently written as , although this is not entirely accurate as the ratio of oxide to hydroxide can vary qu ...

, magnitite and

goethite Goethite (, ) is a mineral of the diaspore group, consisting of iron(III) oxide-hydroxide, specifically the α- polymorph. It is found in soil and other low-temperature environments such as sediment. Goethite has been well known since ancient t ...

, as well as various

clay minerals Clay minerals are hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates (e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4), sometimes with variable amounts of iron, magnesium, alkali metals, alkaline earths, and other cations found on or near some planetary surfaces. Clay mineral ...

. The complex formed from the lateritic weathering of

ultramafic rock Ultramafic rocks (also referred to as ultrabasic rocks, although the terms are not wholly equivalent) are igneous and meta-igneous rocks with a very low silica content (less than 45%), generally >18% MgO, high FeO, low potassium, and are usua ...

serpentinite Serpentinite is a metamorphic rock composed predominantly of serpentine group minerals formed by serpentinization of mafic or ultramafic rocks. The ancient origin of the name is uncertain; it may be from the similarity of its texture or color ...

dunite Dunite (), also known as olivinite (not to be confused with the mineral olivenite), is an intrusive igneous rock of ultramafic composition and with phaneritic (coarse-grained) texture. The mineral assemblage is greater than 90% olivine, wit ...

, and

peridotite Peridotite ( ) is a dense, coarse-grained igneous rock consisting mostly of the silicate minerals olivine and pyroxene. Peridotite is ultramafic, as the rock contains less than 45% silica. It is high in magnesium (Mg2+), reflecting the high pr ...

. The mine is a series of open pits, including the sites at Kao Rahai, Sake River, Sake West, Nuspera and Uni Uni.

References

External links

Corporate website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weda Bay Industrial Park Industrial parks in Indonesia Nickel mines in Indonesia North Maluku Metallurgical industry of Indonesia