Antam 1Q ferronickel production down by 16%
Saturday, May 6 2000 - 05:00 AM WIB
Gold and nickel mining company PT Aneka Tambang (Antam) reported on Friday a 16 percent decline in its ferronickel production to 2,406 tons in the first quarter of this year from 2,860 tons in the previous quarter.
Antam, which mines nickel, gold and bauxite, however, maintained the company would be able to meet its target of 10,000 tons this year.
The company added that the year-on-year production of nickel ore in the first quarter slightly increased to 694,790 wet metric tons, but decreased by 46 percent from the previous quarter.
The decline was attributed to the unstable security conditions at one of the company's production sites, on Gebe Island in Maluku province, located in the northern part of Indonesia, has been hit for the past six months by religious conflicts.
Antam still expects the nickel ore production in 2000 to match last year's level, which was 2.1 million wmt, it added.
Gold production, Antam said, continued its strong performance in the first quarter this year, increasing by 2 percent compared to the previous quarter and 287 percent compared to the same quarter last year.
The company said that it was well positioned to achieve its production target of 3.3 tons of gold this year. (*)