ANTAM?s Tayan smelter to operate in March
Thursday, February 27 2014 - 08:19 AM WIB
The Chemical Grade Alumina (CGA) smelter owned by state owned listed firm PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (ANTAM) in Tayan, West Kalimantan will start operation in March this year.
The smelter is now in the phase of production preparation, Muhammad Abi Anwar , ANTAM?s Vice President of Alumina Marketing & Sales said on Wednesday.
?In March, we shall carry out a trial production with an initial capacity of 180,000 tons,? he said.
According to Abi, the smelter will reach its peak capacity of 300,000 tons per year three years from now.
The construction of the Tayan CGA smelter began in June 2011 and is intended to process ANTAM?s bauxite reserves. The Tayan CGA project is developed by PT Indonesia Chemical Alumina, which is 80 percent owned by ANTAM, 20 percent by Japanese firm SDK.
The project is financed with investment from both firm firms, a loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) as well as commercial debt.
The CGA products will be sold on the export and domestic markets. While smelter grade alumina is widely used for the smelting of aluminum metal, chemical grade alumina produced by PT ICA will be widely applied in the production of functional materials and electronic materials such as refractories, abrasives, building materials, IC packaging, and materials for LCD glass.
Editing by Johannes Simbolon