Antam seeks partners for Mempawah project
Monday, August 12 2013 - 08:23 AM WIB
Antam President Director Tato Miraza said the company sought a maximum of two partners for the project, which will be located in Mempawah, West Kalimantan.
?We seek partners to hold around 30 to 35 percent ownership in the project,? Tato said.
According to Tato, Antam is currently assessing a number of bidders or investors from various countries, such as China, Russia, Japan, the United States and some others from the Middle East.
The SGA plant is expected to have an annual production capacity of 1.2 million metric tons of alumina. Antam has finalized feasibility studies for the project and is expecting to kick off plant construction by the end of 2014 or early 2015 at the latest. The plant?s commissioning date is scheduled for 2017.
Total investment is estimated at US$1.4 billion to $1.5 billion. Tato said the estimated spending, as determined by the feasibility studies, was lower than a previous assessment of $1.8 billion to $1.9 billion, making the project more economic and competitive.
?The spending is quite huge. We need partners to share the risk. We won?t force ourselves to do the project on our own because we have three ongoing projects,? Tato said.
The company is currently developing a $490 million chemical grade alumina project in Tayan, West Kalimantan and is expanding its ferronickel plant in Pomalaa, Southeast Sulawesi with an investment of $573 million. It also plans to kick off the development of another ferronickel project worth $1.6 billion in East Halmahera, North Maluku. (*)