Antam ready to develop new nickel mine in Sulawesi

Publicly listed general mining company PT Aneka Tambang (Antam) will soon develop a new nickel mining area in Bahubulu island in Southeast Sulawesi to ensure that its nickel refinery plants in Pomalaa also in the same province would have enough raw materials when the nickel deposits in the existing mining areas in Pomalaa totally depletes, Neraca daily reported on Thursday.

Antam?s president director Dedi Aditya Sumanegara said in Jakarta on Wednesday that the large amount of nickel deposits in the Bahubulu concession area would be more than enough to ensure the operation of the existing refinery plants for another 20 years.

"The Bahubulu mining area will surely be able to replace the Pomalaa area whose deposits continue to deplete," he was quoted as saying.

According to Dedi, the remaining nickel deposits at the Pomalaa area were about 2.2 million tons in early 2001 and are expected to totally deplete in 2004.

In order to ensure the future operation of its two refineries Feni I and Feni II, the company would further develop several new nickel mining areas includung Bahubulu island and Tanjung Bunga area in the province. The Bahubulu area is estimated to contain 8.5 million tons of high quality nickel ores (sapolite) and 34 million tons of low quality nickel ores (limonite), while the Tanjung Bunga area has 10 million tons of sapolite and 24 million tons of limonite.

At present Antam operates two refinery plants each with a combined processing capacity of 11,000 tons a year. The two plants need about 800,000 tons of nickel ore a year. The company will also build its third plant to boost its nickel production in the province. (*)