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View all search resultsAustralian firm to invest $350m to build RI's first battery precursor plant
The planned investment by Queensland-based Pure Battery Technologies (PBT) is intended to fill the gap in the domestic supply chain by building capacity to produce battery precursor materials, one of the highest-value segments in the nickel industry.
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A barge laden with nickel ore (left) and a tugboat are moored at a port operated by PT Gag Nikel on Gag Island on June 19, 2025, left idling for weeks after the government temporarily halted the company’s activities pending an ongoing probe in response to public complaints about potential environmental harm to the wider Raja Ampat regency in Southwest Papua. (The Jakarta Post/Nikka Amandra Gunadharma)
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ustralia’s Pure Battery Technologies (PBT) plans to invest around US$350 million in developing Indonesia’s first precursor cathode active material (pCAM) plant, filling a key gap in the country’s electric vehicle battery supply chain as it pushes deeper into nickel processing.
The new plant will process mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP) produced by a high pressure acid leach (HPAL) facility into pCAM, an intermediate product that is then processed further before assembling into lithium-ion EV batteries.
“Indonesia already has HPAL facilities and will soon have battery cell manufacturing. The remaining links are pCAM and cathode materials. This is where investments such as Pure Battery Technologies become crucial in completing a fully integrated battery ecosystem,” Deputy Investment and Downstream Minister Todotua Pasaribu said in a statement on Thursday, after a meeting PBT chairman Stephen Wilmot in Sydney, Australia.
Read also: Indonesia's HPAL plants scramble as Iran war threatens sulfur supply
Home to the world's largest nickel reserves, Indonesia aims to become a regional EV manufacturing hub by attracting investment across the battery supply chain, imposing a 2020 export ban on nickel ore to pursue this broader strategy.
Southeast Asia’s largest economy has since attracted investments worth billions of dollars of and made significant progress in downstream nickel processing.
According to Todotua, domestic HPAL facilities are already producing MHP and battery cell manufacturing facilities are under development.
