10 companies plan to build smelting plants

At least 10 mining companies plan to build smelting plants in order to comply with the new mining law which requires local mining companies to refine their ore in the country, Indo Pos reported on Wednesday.

These companies include PT Aneka Tambang (Antam), PT Nusantara Smelting, PT Smelting Gresik, PT Indosmelter, according to a senior official at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

The secretary general of the directorate general for mineral, coal and geothermal, Soemarno Witoro Soekarno, said in Jakarta on Tuesday that PT Nusantara Smelting planned to build a nickel smelting plant in Bontang, with total investment of about US$1.04 billion, while Smelting Gresik would build a copper refinery plant with an investment of abut $1.4 billion.

Meanwhile, state owned Antam would build three aluminum smelters, respectively in Tayam West Kalimantan, with investment of $250 million, in Bintan, Riau, with investment of $500 million and in South Kalimantan, with investment of about $60 million.

Soemarno said that both Nusantara Smelting and Antam were quite serious about their plans and they were currently conducting feasibility studies on the projects.

Juangga Mangasi, the director of Nusantara Smelting, said that the company?s copper smelting plant which would be built in Bontang would have a production capacity of 200,000 tons. The plant would receive raw materials from PT Freeport and Newmont Mining Corporation.

Meanwhile, Natsir Mansyur, the chief executive officer of PT Indosmelter, said that the company would team up with Ausmelt of Australia to build a smelter in South Sulawesi. The smelter which would be built with investment of about $500 million would have a capacity to produce 250,000 tons of copper condensate a year and 100,000 tons of copper cathode a year. (*)