Antam allocates higher capex for this year

Petromindo

IDX-listed mining firm PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (Antam) allocates higher capital expenditure (capex) for this year worth Rp 2.56 trillion as the company starts construction of its East Halmahera Ferronickel Plant Development Project (P3FH) in North Maluku Province.

The planned capex for this year is 28 percent higher than last year?s capex of Rp 2 trillion.

?In line with increased construction activity of the East Halmahera Ferronickel Plant Development Project (P3FH), Antam?s capital expenditure is expected to reach Rp2.56 trillion in 2017,? the company said in a statement issued Monday, but did not provide further details about the planned 2017 capex.

Antam in December of last year signed an EPC contract with a consortium comprising of IDX-listed engineering and construction firm PT Wijaya Karya Tbk and Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd for the construction of the first line of the ferronickel plant in East Halmahera Regency with annual production capacity of 13,500 tons of nickel contained in ferronickel (TNi), which is targeted to be completed at the end of 2018.

Antam?s P3FH project is planned to have a total annual capacity of 40,000 tons TNi to allow the company to become a stainless steel producer.

Elsewhere, Antam said in the statement that it welcomes the new Government Regulation No 1/2017 and Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Regulation No 5/2017, which among others gives the company opportunity to export low grade nickel ores with purity of less than 1.7 percent.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak