And finally, I would like to advise all participants, thank you. I'd now like to welcome Justin Werner, Managing Director, Nickel Industries Limited. Over to you.
Thank you, and thank you everyone for December 2025 quarterly results call. If I could ask the moderator to please. Pleasingly, safety for the 17.7 million man-hours worked without a tremendous achievement. The company was awarded the Excellence in Sustainability Leadership Indonesia, highlighting our leadership in ESG implementation and our contributions to the development of sustainable nickel. We also our Solar offtake it achieved financial close, and it is the largest solar project in Indonesia, 262 MW peak, with 80 MW battery energy. And it will allow ENC to reduce its carbon footprint. The power offtake agreement is at a 20% discount with no inflation escalation.
We want to lock in a big part of our power costs. Great. If we could just move. Slight frustration during the quarter of meeting our 1 million wet metric tons, which did mean that most of our For a majority of the growth positives during the quarter, which includes record EBITDA margins from 12% for ENC and the approval of which will support our current application of moving from 9 million to. Adjusted EBITDA from operations, $3 million. And RKEF nickel metal production was slightly up from well. EBITDA was down, driven mostly by higher costs, being unable to supply the RKEFs for a majority of the quarter. That resulted in the in the- at third party or so that did slightly push our costs.
HNC continues to operate well above nine, delivered $17.2 million in EBITDA, which was a 32% on the September quarter. Hengjaya Mine to restart our operations on the twelfth of December with an increase to 10.5 million tons. So in the last 19 days, we were at tons. So I think what's pleasing there is the operations, despite being out for almost two and a half months, we're very quickly. We're currently tracking very well in January, looking at delivering. The standby costs and the mining, unfortunately, did deliver a $9 million for the quarter. But as I said, things are trending very strongly so far for January and this quarter.
So if we could just go to the... And then the going slide after that on RKEF operations. Increased 1%. As I mentioned, cash for nickel ore costs. However, that was offset by lower NPI contract pricing, broadly $11,100, broadly in line with the previous quarter. Spot NPI price is around $13,200. So at the moment, the December quarter average. So we've had a very strong start to the year for nickel pricing, and so that does bode well for the remainder of the year. If we could just go to the next slide, please. I mentioned record EBITDA, EBITDA HNC.
You can see they increased from $6,029 a ton in Q3 to over $8,800 for the December quarter. The MHP contract to $17,110 a ton. Well, it is over $18,000 a ton. Obviously, the average LME price for the whole of 2025, which was $15,000, significant increase in the nickel price, as well as cobalt. Current cobalt spot prices are over $50,000 a ton. The average for 2025 was around $39,967. Extremely well for the imminent ENC. So the next slide, please. Pleased to give ENC project. We're starting some wet commissioning in anticipation of final commissioning quarter.
The installation of the crystallizer has been completed and has been integrated with the rest of the circuit. The refinery, refineries, will look to ramp up production once the HPAL smelter. In terms of the, we've begun purchasing sulfur, and testing is commenced on the first mechanical tests have commenced on the counter-current decantation circuit, thickeners, precipitants, reagent storage tanks. We've started all the mechanical tests, and then, there's been allocation of additional just to ensure that we can complete the slurry pipeline, which will to ENC, and also return the tailings to a dry.
I would encourage people, if you haven't already seen it, there is a link to a video in the—see the size and the scale of ENC, and it is at the moment. If we could just go to the next slide, please. I mentioned, unfortunately, impacted by RKAB delays. So as a result, we moved from a $32.8 million in the third quarter to a $14.9 million. But as I said, January is looking very good—approval of the AMDAL was a significant milestone. Very confident of achieving an $8 million for this year. I think that was, is sort of well supported, but able to go from $9 million to $10.5 million.
So, I think that both increased this year. If we could just go to the next slide, please. Part of the project continues to track. The ETL feasibility study has been, we're hopeful of receiving approval from at the end of 2026. That the initial target from ETL will be somewhere around them. At the ANN IUP, the feasibility study, that feasibility study will actually include slurry plant, the same that we have at Hengjaya Mine for any future potential limonite ore. And in terms of the haul roads between ETL and ANN during the quarter, we drilled about 18,000m of exploration, exploration and infill drilling to support detail. If we could just go to the next slide, please.
We're very pleased to announce the sale of 10% of the ENC project. It's $2.4 billion, so at a premium to the $2.3 after that. Sphere is a South Korean KOSDAQ-listed premium alloy and precision manufacturer for the global aerospace industry. They're one of only five global key vendors to SpaceX, a 10-year supply contract that this is to support SpaceX's rocket. That transaction expected to complete Q1 2026. We see this as a it represents our entry into and particularly the aerospace and aeronautical sectors, which demand the highest product quality and have the strictest qualifications. And so we think this is a strong endorsement of the quality.
Not only that, it does access and for to supply to additional North American aerospace end users. So we're very with the transaction. If we could just go... That finishes the quarterly results presentation. As I said, despite the frustration, a number of positives, including a very price and NPI price at the moment, which bodes well for a strong quarter back up to where they were. We remain confident of an increased RKAB and $8,000 a ton for the commissioning of ENC at the end of this quarter. So with that, hand over to questions.
If you wish to ask a question, please press star followed by one to be announced. That is star one if you wish to ask a question. Chun Wai Mui from Arkkan Capital, your line is open.
Uh, yes.
Hi, thank you.
I wanted to get a little bit more clarification on the RKAB, I guess 2024 for this year, for 2026. So, it hasn't been announced, right? I think in the last previous presentations, you've been expecting, 9 versus kind of 10.5 that you have currently. We've seen headlines in industry news that, the RKAB, aggregate fully, I think, down 1/3 year-over-year. So, I guess, you know, like, I'm just trying to figure out, you know, what's you guys not getting to the 19 million tons that you guys are expecting? That's number one. And then another thing, gets you guys, 100% self-sufficient, including, you know, what, what is the actual number to get you guys 100% self-sufficient?
Yeah. So look, the first question, did the government reduce the RKAB quota from last year? Dave, those that have integrated operations, of course, we have lines, we have ENC as well. But we were able to go at the end of last year from 9 to 10.5 million. You know, that supports the fact that, you know, the government is supportive of increasing our RKAB. And look, there's always environmental study that's been approved for the 19 million tons. We still remain confident the RKAB cuts come from. I think it will... What we've been seeing is that it will come from a lot of the smaller producers, RKEF or HPAL operations, of which there is many.
Don't have the best, and I think this is just a way of ensuring that those who are operating properly shouldn't, there shouldn't be too much risk on the RKAB. And then, sorry, your second question?
The second question-
Yeah.
The cutoff level for us achieving across our operations.
Yeah. Yeah, all right. So that the $19 million will get us to 100 for, for ENC. And it will get us all self-sufficiency at our RKEF operations, which is at 8 lines within the IMIP.
So does that— So, okay, so maybe dig a little bit deep. You guys are operating at, you know, overall, like, you know, 25-30. And so when the government kind of takes into account of, you know, saying your integrated kind of midstream capacity, are they looking at nameplate or lit waste that you guys are producing at? Because, you know, it's 30%, right? So, sure. You know, like, I think is 19 100% the nameplate, or is that 100% self-sufficient on, you know, nameplate plus 30%? Is kind of my question.
It's 100% self-sufficiency on nameplate, which is about 11. And so obviously with 19, there's a significant buffer there operating significantly above nameplate capacity.
Okay, thanks.
Please press star followed by one on your telephone and wait for your name. Or one if you wish to ask a question. There are no further questions at this time, so I'd like to hand back to management to close the comments. Thank you.
Look, thank you everyone again, and as I said, we look forward to hopefully the investors with an update on our RKEF as we continue to work closely with the government to secure it.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now all disconnect.