China Eximbank provides RMB 1.7 billion loan for the WP&RKA Laterite Nickel Mine Project (Linked to Record ID#71809, #67801, and #105188)

China Eximbank provides RMB 1.7 billion loan for the WP&RKA Laterite Nickel Mine Project In July 2008, PT. Wanatiara Persada (WP) and PT.

Rimba Kurnia Alam (RKA) — created a joint venture called the WP&RKA Company to finance, design, and implement the WP&RKA Laterite Nickel Mine Project. At that time, WP held a 60% ownership stake and RKA held a 40% ownership stake in the WP&RKA Company.

Then, in 2016, Jinchuan Group — the ultimate holding company of Jinchuan International, a state-owned Chinese enterprise — acquired WP’s 60% ownership stake and RKA’s 40% ownership stake in order to invest in the WP&RKA Laterite Nickel Mine Project.

To facilitate this $57.13 million acquisition was well as the implementation of the $601 million WP&RKA Laterite Nickel Mine Project, China Development Bank (CDB) issued a $34 million foreign exchange loan to Jinchuan Group (Record ID#67801).

In 2018, China Eximbank also issued two loans to PT.

Wanatiara Persada — a special purpose vehicle and wholly-owned subsidiary of Jinchuan Group — for the WP&RKA Laterite Nickel Mine Project: an RMB 1.7 billion loan with a 10-year maturity (Record ID#105187) and a $150 million loan with a 10-year maturity (Record ID#105188).

The purpose of the project, which was financed according to a 70:30 debt-to-equity ratio, was to build a laterite nickel mine and a 150MW power plant — with three, 50MW power generation units (Unit 1, Unit 2, and Unit 3) — in Kawasi Village, Obi Island, Halmahera Regency South, and North Maluku Province (exact locational coordinates: -1.569915816292653, 127.41508693097965).

The project was surveyed by the Nuclear Industry Jinhua Engineering Survey Institute, designed by Jinchuan Nickel Cobalt Research and Design Institute Co., Ltd., supervised by Gansu Jingwei Construction Supervision Consulting Co., Ltd., and implemented by Jinchuan Group Engineering Construction Co., Ltd.

Construction started on November 25, 2016. Unit 1 was commissioned in May 2019 and Unit 2 was commissioned in June 2019. Unit 3 was commissioned in September 2019. On October 30, 2019, all production lines went into operation, marking the completion of the project.