Nickel Industries Limited advised that the Company's 70%-owned Oracle Nickel Project within the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park in Central Sulawesi has produced its first batch of nickel pig iron. Having previously reported the electrification and ignition of ONI's first RKEF line in late October, a maiden `NPI tap' was completed on 14 November, well ahead of the scheduled delivery date of February 2023. Oracle Nickel's other three RKEF lines will be progressively commissioned over the coming months, with all four RKEF lines anticipated to have commenced operations by the end of the first quarter of 2023. The ramp-up of ONI will be transformative to the Company's existing operations, increasing annual attributable nickel metal nameplate capacity from 52.8kt to 78kt pa with actual attributable production levels expected to exceed 100kt pa based on historical levels of outperformance above nameplate capacity. The ramp-up of ONI's 4 RKEF lines is expected to follow a similar path to that of the Company's Angel Nickel Project (`ANI') at the Indonesia Weda Bay Industrial Park (`IWIP'), with each line progressively ramping up to approximately 60% of nameplate capacity until such time as the ONI's own power plant comes online. Upon the commissioning of the ONI powerplant, currently scheduled for the second quarter of 2023,
all RKEF lines are expected to rapidly increase their production levels to a similar level of outperformance as the Company's existing operations. Importantly, ONI is expected to have a similar cost profile to ANI, which is significantly below the Company's existing RKEF operations, with cost benefits from ownership of a power plant and also the scale benefits associated with a larger production capacity. As with ANI, ONI will require the issuance of an Industrial Business Licence (Izin Usaha Industri) (`IUI') to commence commercial sales of NPI. All NPI produced ahead of the IUI issuance will be stockpiled. It is presently expected that ONI's IUI will be in place to allow first commercial sales in early 2023. As announced to the ASX on 3 October 2022, the Company is now producing nickel matte at the 80%-owned Hengjaya Nickel Project within IMIP. The production switch from NPI to nickel matte was smooth and production is in line with expectations. Importantly, revenue from the Company's production at HNI is now linked to the pricing on the Shanghai Futures Exchange. Further information regarding nickel matte will be provided in the upcoming fourth quarter report.