Indonesia's dirty nickel secret Hope this article opens for you, shows how net zero CNC nickel will be the #1 in demand if the FS proves positive. What an enviromental disaster in the making.
This technology, using acid under conditions of intense heat and pressure to remove nickel from raw ore, has never been tested before in Indonesia, where the frequency of earthquakes, heavy rainfall and landslides can make it especially treacherous to transport and store hazardous waste. The process poses steep environmental costs that have yet to be reckoned with, according to interviews with more than 40 people familiar with the country’s nickel industry, visits to six largely isolated mining villages in eastern Indonesia and visual analyses by mining experts.
Liyus, who goes by one name, said he used to drink from the rivers that run past his village, but since the nickel mine added its acid-leaching refinery two years ago, the waterways have turned dark red, so thick with pollution at some points that rows of coconut trees have been killed off. He doesn’t know what’s in the water, only that it bleeds into the sea and that his nephews have had to go farther and farther out to find fish. He pointed to a fishing net drying on a nearby tree. It was stained a reddish brown. Managing the acidic material under extreme heat is more complicated than traditional methods of refining nickel ore. And the titanium vessels needed to mix the chemicals are expensive, part of why capital costs for HPAL projects are typically double those of conventional smelters, according to the International Energy Agency, an intergovernmental research organization.
The leaching process is also energy-intensive, and generating that energy produces about 20 tons of carbon dioxide per ton of nickel, or about double the amount of the prevailing processing method, according to the IEA.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2023/ev-nickel-refinery-dangers/