Antam, partners form JV to develop alumina project

JSX-listed state miner PT Antam Tbk announced on Monday the formation of a JV company called PT Indonesia Chemical Alumina (ICA) to study the feasibility of building a chemical grade alumina plant at Tayan, West Kalimantan

Antam?s share in this project is 49 percent with other three partners; Showa Denko KK of Japan, Straits Trading Amalgamated Resources Private Limited of Singapore (STAR), and Marubeni Corporation of Japan owns 30 percent, 15 percent and 6 percent, respectively. Antam has option to increase its ownership to 51% in the future.

Following this, the parties will move into finalization of loan documents, all ancillary agreement, the selection of Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor and updating the 2003 bankable feasibility study, said Antam.

Based on the 2003 Bankable Feasibility Study (BFS) completed for Antam by Mizuho, the Tayan project will produce 300,000 tons of chemical grade alumina per year.

?These figures are not final and are subject to revision during the updating of the feasibility study. The project is likely to be funded 35 percent equity and 65 percent through debt,? the company said.

Antam expects construction to begin in late 2007 and commercial operations to begin in 2010 to process the vast, high quality bauxite reserves into chemical grade alumina, for sales under offtake agreement to Japan and other countries including current

SDK chemical grade alumina customers and also to local sales within Indonesia.(alex)