Antam's Pongkor mine to produce 4.175 tons gold this year

Publicly listed mining company PT Antam expects to produce about 4.175 tons of gold this year from its Pongkor gold mine in Bogor, West Java, or equivalent to the company’s realized gold production in 2003, Kompas daily reported on Friday.

Antam’s director for operation Eko Warman said in Jakarta the company also expected to produce 24.28 tons of nickel this year.

Eko said he was optimistic that the gold production could be achieved this year although the production activities had been slowed down due to a recent incident, which killed a number of illegal miners in the Pongkor gold mine.

At present, the company’s gold mining production has reached 80 percent of its normal level. At a normal condition, Antam produces 350 kilograms of gold a month.

Antam has proven gold reserves of about 50 tons, which are expected to deplete in 2015. Antam continues its exploring activities to find new gold deposits. (*)