PT Trimegah Bangun Persada (Harita Nickel) is taking measures to reduce environmental impact and enhance operational efficiency by launching a pilot project aimed at recycling tailings (SHP) from its nickel processing operations.

President Director Roy Arman Arfandy emphasized that the project reflects the company’s commitment to sustainable mining practices.

“One of our intentions is to reduce the volume of SHP. Secondly, we see this as an efficiency measure by extracting iron from the tailings, we can produce new products that generate additional revenue,” Roy spoke to Indonesia Business Post on Thursday, August 7, 2025.

The project, currently in its pilot phase, employs technology sourced from China. Harita Nickel plans to process around 1.5 million tons of tailings annually, converting the waste into usable iron products. The final yield will depend on the moisture content within the tailings, which varies by site and processing method.

The pilot project is expected to be completed by the end of this year, with full commercial operations targeted for launch in 2026.

Regulatory compliance

Harita Group’s SHP management practices align with Ministerial Regulation No. 6/2021 issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, which governs the handling of hazardous and toxic waste (B3).

The challenge lies in the scale of SHP generated by nickel processing more than 90 percent of the raw input material becomes waste. As a result, managing this waste requires vast land areas and significantly increases operational costs.

But, SHP storage demands not only land, but also long-term maintenance and operational expenses. Recycling this waste into something useful is both an environmental and economic necessity.

Greener nickel industry

The pilot project forms part of Harita Nickel’s broader sustainability agenda as the company seeks to align its operations with global best practices in green mining and waste management.

The company’s efforts also support Indonesia’s growing ambition to position itself as a responsible leader in the global nickel supply chain particularly amid rising demand from the electric vehicle (EV) industry.