Antam completes power plant construction at Pomalaa ferronickel project
Tuesday, October 11 2016 - 01:16 AM WIB
IDX-listed mining firm PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (Antam) announced Monday it has completed the construction of a 2x30 MW coal-fired power plant as part of the Pomalaa ferronickel plant expansion project (P3FP) in Kolaka Regency, Southeast Sulawesi Province.
The company said in a statement that in line with the completion of the power plant, Antam is currently finalizing the overall project completion with estimated commercial operation at the end of 2016.
Construction of the coal fired power plant is the last package of the P3FP project, Antam said in the statement.
?The completion of the coal fired power plant reflects the expansion of our ferronickel production remains on track,? said Antam?s President Director Tedy Badrujaman in the statement.
The P3FP will increase Antam?s annual ferronickel production capacity from 18,000-20,000 tons of contained nickel in ferronickel (TNi) to 27,000-30,000 TNi. Following the operations of the coal fired power plant, our ferronickel energy cost may be lowered by 15-20 percent, Antam said. ?Inline with lower production cost, higher production capacity as well as higher domestic nickel ore sales, we believe our nickel business will remain bright and deliver solid returns and profitability,? Tedy said.
Antam?s Circulating Fluidised Bed (CFB)-type coal fired power plant has a capacity 2x30MW with an EPC cost of US$145 million. Sumitomo Corporation is the main contractor of the power plant. The construction of the Pomalaa coal fired power plant aims to support the electricity requirement of the ferronickel plant. The Pomalaa coal fired power plant requires approximately 300,000 tons of low calorific coal annually with calorific value of 4,200 kcal/kg (GAR).
As the completion of the coal fired power plant is also expected to lower the ferronickel cash costs, Antam said it expects to maintain its position as one of the low cost ferronickel producers.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak