Baker McKenzie and White & Case have advised PT Vale Indonesia and China's Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, respectively, as two of the three partners in a $4.5 billion nickel processing plant in the Southeast Asian country, with U.S. carmaker Ford being the third.

The proposed high-pressure acid leaching (HPAL) plant will be located in Pomalaa in Southeast Sulawesi, where Vale operates a nickel mine, reported Reuters. Nickel is one of the key raw materials used in producing electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

Reuters added that Indonesia, which has the world's biggest nickel reserves, has been trying to develop downstream industries for the metal, ultimately aiming to produce batteries and electric vehicles.

The Baker McKenzie team was led by foreign legal consultant Norman Bissett and partner Tanya Denning. The White & Case team was led by partner John Tivey, and included partners Paul Tang, Eugene Man, Joanne Emerson Taqi, Matthew Osborne, Charles McConnell, Bingna Guo, Tim Power, Aldrin De Zilva, James Killick, and James Hsiao.