Nickel Industries, an Australian mining company, has completed the acquisition of a 51% stake in the Siduarsi Project in Indonesia from PT Iriana Mutiara. The Siduarsi Project is a 6th generation Contract of Work (CoW) and is one of only four active nickel CoWs in Indonesia. The deal was valued at AUD 5 million (USD 3.4 million) in exploration expenditures, alongside a milestone payment of 4 million Nickel Industries shares upon confirming a JORC-compliant resource of at least 50 million dry metric tonnes at 1.1% nickel.
The acquisition is strategic for Nickel Industries as it provides access to a substantial nickel and cobalt resource, with the potential to develop into a project of a similar size and scale to the nearby Ramu deposit. The initial focus will be on shipping limonite ore directly to the Indonesia Weda Bay Industrial Park (IWIP), where Nickel Industries operates its Angel Nickel rotary kiln electric furnace (RKEF). Initial metallurgical tests suggest that the ore is well-suited for High-Pressure Acid Leach (HPAL) processing.