Antam's alumina plant to start commercial operation in 2009

Publicly listed mining company PT Antam hopes that the commercial operation of its chemical grade alumina (CGA) plant, which would be built in Tayan, South Kalimantan in cooperation with Malaysian and Japanese companies, could be started in 2009, Investor daily reported on Saturday.

"If the negotiations with joint venture partners run as expected, the commercial operation of the CGA plant could begin in 2009," Antam's president director Deddy Aditya Soemanegara told reporters following the company's public expose with security analysts.

Deddy said that Antam was now still negotiating the composition of the share ownership of a joint venture, which would build and operate the CGA plant. "Antam and other shareholders in the joint venture will try their best to make a good position in the joint venture," he said.

Antam earlier said that it would set up a joint venture with Malaysian Mining Corporation, and two Japanese companies Show Denko and Marubeni Corporation, to build and operate the CGA plant.

The joint venture will invest about US$220 million to build the CGA plant, which would have a capacity to produce 300,000 tons of CGA a year.

Meanwhile Deddy said that Antam's ferronickel sales were expected to increase by 10 percent this year as the result of the operation of the company's second ferronickel plant (FeNi II).

"In 2005, the production of ferronickel is expected to increase by 10 percent from 9,000 tons in 2003, while nickel ores and gold production are expected to reach 3.5 million tons and 4 tons, respectively," he was quoted as saying by the daily. (*)