Antam eyeing gold sales of more than 9 tons this year
Thursday, September 10 2009 - 02:01 AM WIB
Antam?s President Director Alwin Syah Loebis said in Jakarta that the company expected to sell more than Antam?s intial target of 9 tons of gold this year.
Antam had sold 6 tons of gold in the first half of 2009, he said.
Antam is also planning to start gold production at its Cibaliung, West Java mine in the middle of next year with a production target of 1 tons per year.
The firm is maintaining its ferronickel output target for this year at 12,000 tons although its third ferronickel smelter, FeNi 3, is expected to resume full operation in October after months of maintenance, he said.
Antam also expects to produce between 300,000-400,000 tons per year of bauxite from its new mine in Tayan, West Kalimantan, to compensate for production decline at its existing bauxite mine in Kijang, Bintan Island.
"We expect bauxite from Tayan will offset production decline at Kijang whose reserve has been depleted," he said, adding that Kijang production until first semester this year is now only 300,000 tons from 1.1 million tons annually, which it not feasible anymore.
Tayan bauxite mine, which started commercial production in March this year, has run trial exports of 50,000 tons of bauxite to customers in Japan recently, he said. It has reserves of 100 million metric tons of bauxite.
Gold contributed 58 percent of Antam's revenue in the first half of 2009, followed by ferro-nickel and nickel ore at 21 percent and 16 percent respectively, he added.(*)