Australia’s Nickel Industries recently said that South Korea’s Sphere Corp would buy a 10% stake in the Excelsior Nickel Cobalt high-pressure acid leach (HPAL) project in Indonesia at a USD 2.4bn valuation.
The South Korean materials manufacturer will acquire the stake from Hong Kong-based Decent Resource, while Nickel Industries will retain its 44% stake in the project, the Australian company said in a statement.
Sphere, a special alloy supplier to Elon Musk-led SpaceX, will offtake its 10% share of nickel as cathode material and has entered into an offtake agreement at market price for further volumes above its 10% ownership share.
The ENC HPAL project, being built in Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi, will be the first HPAL project worldwide with the capacity to produce three class-1 nickel products – mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP), nickel sulphate, and nickel cathode, according to Nickel Industries’ website.
The deal comes amid soaring nickel prices as top producer Indonesia plans to cut mining output quotas to support commodity prices.
Nickel Industries expects the funding of the transaction to be completed early in the first quarter of 2026.