The company has an unprocessed ore left as a by-product of its mining that is uneconomic to process in its plants or in another domestic smelter.
"If Antam got a credential to export the nickel ore we will allocate a high grade nickel or to support domestic smelters with a more economical rate compared with today's market price," Antam president director Tedy Badrujaman said.
"Whereas the unprocessed nickel ore, which cannot be consumed domestically, will be exported.
"This unprocessed nickel ore have a better nickel grade compared with a nickel ore from the Philippines so it will be substitute the Philippine's ores if the ore can be exported."
Antam's nickel reserves and resources amounted to 988.3 million wet metric tonnes, consisting 580.2M wmt of high grade nickel ore and 408.1M wmt of low grade nickel ore.