Aneka Tambang to start construction of new ferronickel plant next year

State miner PT Aneka Tambang will go ahead with its plan to construct its third ferronickel processing plant in South Sulawesi next year in a bid to boost is ferronickel production to about 24,000 tons a year, the company's top executive has said.

Dedi Adithya Sumanagara , the president of the publicly listed company, said that several international and local banks had expressed their commitment to support the construction of the new plant, which would have a production capacity of 13,000 tons annually.

"If all run smoothly, the construction works of the new plant will be started in early 2001," he told the press after the installation of the head of the company's ferronickel production unit in Pomala'a, South Sulawesi on Saturday.

Dedi said that the plan to build the third ferronickel processing unit had been delayed for two years due to the unexpected financial crisis, which hit the country in late 1997. The country's worst ever crisis had caused several local and international banks to cancel their financing for the project.

The operation of the new plant will increase the company's ferronickel production to 24,000 tons a year. At present the company's two plants produced about 11,000 tons of ferronickel a year.

Dedi said that the company would face no problem in marketing the ferronickel, which would be produced by the new plant because the company had secured a long-term contract with foreign buyers to buy the ferronickel from the new plant.

He said that with the new plant, the sales of the ferronickel would account for about 60 percent of the company's total revenues. The company, which also produces gold, booked profit of about US$97.5 million in the first quarter of this year. (*)