Aneka Tambang, Inco to team up in nickel exploration in SE Sulawesi

State owned general mining company PT Aneka Tambang (Antam) has reached an initial agreement with the Canada-based nickel mine operator PT Inco to cooperate in prospecting the later's nickel concession in East Pomalaa, South East Sulawesi, Neraca reported on Friday,

Antam's corporate secretary Dohar Siregar said in Jakarta on Thursday that the location of the nickel concession with deposit of about 10 million tons is much closer to Antam's refinery than to that of Inco.

"The location is about 200 kilometers from Inco's refinery which will makes the distribution inefficient," he was quoted as saying by the daily.

Dohar said that the final agreement would be soon signed and he hoped the cooperation would benefit not only the two companies but also the local government.

Inco's spokesman Latif Hasim said earlier that the nickel concession, which covers an area of about 63,500 hectares is the concessions awarded by the government to the Canadian company several years ago. The company could not carry out the exploration activities immediately as it still focused on exploration activities in its main operation in South Sulawesi, Latif said.

The Southeast Sulawesi administration has appealed to the Inco management to begin the exploration in a bid to help the local government create employment opportunities to the local.

With the cooperation with Aneka Tambang, Inco would be able to speed up the exploration activities, Latif added. (*)