PT Halmahera Persada Lygend, a JV between Indonesia's Harita Group and Chinese mining firm Ningbo Lygend, is building the plant on the archipelago's Obi island. It will supply GEM with 17.9 million tonnes of nickel compounds and up to 2.2Mt of cobalt compounds.
The eight-year GEM supply agreement will come into effect as soon as the Obi Island plant enters commercial operations, which the deal stipulates can be no later than June 30, 2021. Further financial details of the agreements were not disclosed.
"With the booming of the global [EV] market, high-nickel and low-cobalt batteries will become the trend... [This] agreement will help us secure nickel raw materials to meet our growing [needs]," GEM wrote in a filing to Shenzhen Stock Exchange, reported FastMarkets.
GEM has previously focused on recycling waste resources containing cobalt, nickel and tungsten, which it processes to manufacture ultra-fine cobalt powder and nickel powder.
China's Tsingshan Group and partners including GEM are also building a US$700 million HPAL plant at the PT Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) on Indonesia's Sulawesi island.
