2023-12-24 16:03:15
An explosion at a nickel processing plant in Indonesia has killed at least 13 people. A spokesman for the Morowali industrial park, where the nickel plant is located, said 46 other people were injured in the accident on the island of Sulawesi on Sunday. The dead were nine Indonesians and four Chinese.
The number of injured was previously given as 39. It was also said that five of the 13 dead were Chinese. The incident at the Chinese-financed facility occurred on Sunday morning around 5:30 a.m. local time (Saturday 10:30 p.m. CET). According to initial investigations, the explosion occurred during repair work on an oven.
A flammable liquid ignited and the fire then spread to nearby oxygen tanks, which exploded, the spokesman said. According to him, the fire was extinguished on Sunday morning.
The spokesman for the industrial park explained that most of the injured were injured by the hot steam escaping. 41 of them were admitted to hospitals, the remaining five were being treated as outpatients.
The nickel processing plant is operated by PT Indonesia Tsingshan Stainless Steel (ITSS). The majority owner of ITSS is the Chinese company Tsingshan, which is the largest nickel producer in the world.
In Indonesia, fires occur once more and once more due to inadequate safety regulations, which are often not adhered to. The Southeast Asian country is the world’s largest producer of nickel, which is needed, among other things, for the production of batteries. China has invested heavily in nickel facilities on Sulawesi, but the working and safety conditions are often criticized.
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