Antam?s CGA project may be delayed

State owned mining company PT Aneka Tambang?s plan to build a chemical grade alumina (CGA) plant in Tayan, West Kalimantan may be delayed as negotiations on the funding for the project with Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) could not be completed according to an initial schedule.

Aneka Tambang (Antam) previously expected the negotiations would be completed by the end of last year.

Antam president director Alwin Syah said in Jakarta on Monday that the state mining company was still negotiating the loan package.

According to Antam, JBIC has initially agreed to provide US$292.5 million for the CGA plant, which account for more than a half of the total funding for the project which is estimated to reach $450 million.

?We hope the negotiations can be completed this month so that the loan can be disbursed,? he added.

Antam has said that it would begin the CGA project in February, this year. The CGA plant to be built in Sanggau regency, West Kalimantan, with a capacity of 300,000 tons a year, is scheduled for commercial operation in 2013.

About 200,000 tons of the total production will be supplied to Japanese company Showa Denko in Japan, and the other 100,000 tons will be sold in the domestic market. (*)