Vale Indonesia target HPAL smelters to finish by 2026

PT Vale Indonesia, a unit of Vale S.A. subsidiary Vale Canada, is targeting the completion of two smelter construction projects in Morowali Regency, Central Sulawesi Province and Pomalaa District, Southeast Sulawesi Province to be completed in 2026.

Vale Indonesia Chief Executive Officer Febriany Eddy explained on Mar. 19, 2025, that the completion target for the two smelters is an internal one between Vale and the partner company. Formally, the two projects are targeted for completion in 2027.

"We just want to speed things up. The investment has started, why do we want to go slowly?" she explained.

Febriany said that Vale currently has three large investment projects across three regions in Sulawesi. In addition to the ones in Pomalaa District and Morowali Regency, Vale is also building a smelter in Sorowako Village, Nuha District, East Luwu Regency, South Sulawesi Province.

She elaborated that the three projects are based on low-carbon energy, and all three use high-pressure acid leach (HPAL) technology.

"The investments for these projects are around US$9 billion or Rp130 trillion," she revealed.

Febriany said that Vale Indonesia acts as the mine manager because it holds a special mining business permit (IUPK), while the company's partners are responsible for buiding the smelter and assembling their HPAL facilities. The US$9 billion investment covers costs for the mine all the way to the downstream process

"The progress is very good, especially in Pomalaa in collaboration with Ford and Huayou," she divulged.

Febriany said the investment value of Vale's projects is large because the production capacity of the HPAL smelter in Pomalaa District reaches 120,000 tons, while the smelter in Morowali Regency has a capacity of 60,000 tons.