Antam seeking to obtain loans worth $325m from Japanese bank

State owned mining company PT Aneka Tambang (Antam) is seeking to obtain loans worth US$325 million from a Japanese bank to finance the company?s expansion plan, Kontan reported on Thursday.

Antam?s president director Alwin Syah Loebis said in Jakarta on Wednesday that the loans would be used to develop the chemical grade alumina (CGA) project in Tayan, West Kalimantan, and to finance the expansion of the company?s gold mine.

Antam plans to build the Tayan CGA plant with a capacity of 300,000 tons a year in cooperation with Showa Denko of Japan, Marubeni Corporation of Japan and Straits Trading Amalgamated Resources Private Ltd of Singapore. The plant was initially planned to be built at the end of 2009 but it was later delayed due to financial problems.

Antam?s corporate secretary Bimo Budi Satrio said that the company expected the loan from the Japanese bank could be soon disbursed so that the construction of the alumina plant could be begun in 2011.

?We hope the plant will be able to begin commercial production in 2013,? he added. (*)