Antam, Posco team up to build ferronickel smelter
Friday, March 18 2005 - 02:56 AM WIB
State nickel and gold miner PT. Aneka Tambang Tbk. (Antam) announced on Friday that it had signed an MoU with South Korean steel maker POSCO to complete a feasibility study by 2005 to determine the viability of jointly building and operating a new ferronickel facility in Indonesia.
The site is likely to be in a vicinity of Antam?s Sangaji prospect on Halmahera island, North Maluku, which is known to have huge amount of untapped saprolite and limonite ore reserves.
?The plan is to build a ferronickel with facility with an annual production capacity of 30,000 tons of nickel contained in ferronickel. If the study indicates the plan is feasible, both companies will work towards building a facility which begins commissioning by the end of 2009," said Antam in a statement.
Antam has been a POSCO ferronickel supplier for several years. Ferronickel is made with nickel with its anticorrosive properties. (alex)