Antam may take three months to repair smelter

State owned mining company PT Aneka Tambang said repair works on its nickel smelter, which leaked last month, may take three months.

?We are disappointed that the repair will take longer than we had previously expected,'' company president Dedi Aditya Sumanagara told reporters in Jakarta Monday.

On June 19, the company said the operation of the US$320 million smelter was likely to be stopped for three weeks as the damage was considered "minimal".

Dedi said due to the problem, it would be difficult for the company to reach its ferronickel production target of 20,000 tons this year.

Antam produces various kinds of mining products, but nickel accounts for up to 90 percent of its revenue.

Better known as FeNi III, the smelter is the third owned by the company with an annual production capacity of 14,500 tons. In the first quarter, the new smelter helped boost Antam's ferronickel output by 61 percent to 4,352 metric tons. (Godang)