China’s GEM to invest $8b in battery recycling hub in Kalimantan – Companies

hinese battery materials giant GEM Co., Ltd. plans to invest up to US$8 billion to develop a large-scale battery recycling and so-called green industrial park in North Kalimantan, as Indonesia ramps up efforts to build an electric vehicle ecosystem.

Initial investment for the Indonesia Green Industrial Park (IGIP) is expected to reach $2 billion, with total capital outlay gradually increasing to $8 billion, GEM founder and chairman Xu Kaihua told reporters on Saturday.

While many nickel players had been focusing on EV battery production, Xu said GEM’s priority was to create a zero-emissions ecosystem based on recycling. 

“We want to build a model where nickel we export can return to Indonesia for recycling,” Xu said, as quoted by Bisnis.

GEM already operates a nickel processing facility in Morowali, Central Sulawesi, through a joint venture called QMB, which includes partners such as China’s Tsingshan and CATL’s Brunp, South Korea’s Ecopro and Japan’s Hanwa.

At the facility, GEM recycles more than 30 types of rare materials, including cobalt, lithium, copper, tungsten and various rare earth elements, and processes more than 10 percent of China’s electronic waste and used batteries, according to the company’s website.

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Xu said GEM’s Morowali plant had enabled Indonesia to refine low-grade nickel and recycle cobalt, contributing to the production of what it claimed as “green nickel” in the form of mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP), a key material for EV batteries.