Antam records ferronickel production increase in Q4

State mining firm PT Aneka Tambang said Friday that its ferronickel production during the fourth quarter of 2001 was 4,257 tons, an increase of 80 percent and 29 percent compared with the previous quarter and same quarter last year as the furnace of FeNi 1 resumed full operation in October and toll smelting with Pamco was accounted for

Antam said the toll smelting from Pamco to compensate for the closure of FeNi 1 produced 1,000 tons of nickel and Pomalaa's production reached 9,302 tons of contained nickel, thus reaching the annual target of 10,300 tons.

Ferronickel sales during the fourth quarter increased by 190 percent and 22 percent compared with previous quarter and same quarter last year. Antam sold 10,283 tons of contained nickel, matching the annual target.

Antam also reported that Saprolitic (high grade) nickel ore production from Pomalaa, Gebe, Gee and the new mine at Tanjung Buli totaled 2,498,163 wmt and was 16 percent higher than the 2001 target. This, said the company, was mainly due to 58 percent order enlargement from the Japanese consortium Gokokai (Nippon Yakkin, Sumitomo and Pacific Metals Co) and the beginning of exports from Gee and Buli

Meanwhile, the company said that gold production reached 97.0 percent of the 4.102 kg gold target of 2001. (alex)