Antam?s alumina plant project may be delayed

Stated owned miner PT Aneka Tambang (Antam) has recently cancelled the tender for the construction of its a chemical grade alumina (CGA) plant in Tayan, West Kalimantan as the bidding prices proposed by the bidders were far higher than the company’s initial estimates, Kontan reported Monday.

 

The tender cancellation may lead to the delay in the CGA construction project which has been scheduled to begin end of this year.

 

“So, we have not yet selected the contractor of the project, But, we want the project to go ahead as scheduled,” Antam’s president director Dedi Aditya Sumanagara said in Jakarta late last week.

 

Meanwhile, Antam’s corporate secretary Bimo Budi Satriyo said that Antam was trying to find other alternatives for the construction of the project, including offering the construction works to its partner.

 

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

 

Antam said in March this year that it was finalizing loan documents, all ancillary agreements, the selection of Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor and updating the 2003 bankable feasibility study on the project.

 

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.

 

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 buyers in Indonesia.(*)