Nickel resources surveyed

Nickel resources surveyed

JAKARTA (JP): Queensland Nickel Ltd. of Australia is surveying Obi island in Maluku for nickel resources.

"Queensland Nickel is one of the three Australian mining companies interested in surveying nickel resources in Maluku," the chairman of the surveying team of the state-owned PT Aneka Tambang, Wawan Darmawan, told Antara in Ternate, Maluku, yesterday.

He did not mention the names of the other two Australian firms.

Wawan quoted an Australian geologist, John Periones, as saying that the islands of Obi and Halmahera in Maluku have high quality nickel which can be mined for decades.

Aneka Tambang currently mines nickel on Gebe island, Halmahera, and processes its products in Pomala, Southeast Sulawesi.

Maluku Utara regent Abdullah Assagaf said that the islands of Obi, Bacan and Halmahera have manganese and nickel resources.

The regency exported some 1.4 million tons of nickel to Japan in the January-October period of 1995, yielding revenues of US$28 million. (kod)