Antam starts construction of ferronickel plant in Halmahera Timur

By Romel S. Gurky

Petromindo|Boim

IDX-listed mining firm PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (Antam) started on Tuesday construction of a new ferronickel plant in Halmahera Timur, North Maluku Province.

The company said in a statement that the ferronickel plant (also known as P3FH project) will have annual installed production capacity of 13,500 tons of nickel in ferronickel (TNi), expanding the company?s ferronickel production capacity to 40,500-43,500 TNi per year.

Antam President Director Tedy Badrujaman said in the statement that the P3FH projects forms part of the company?s strategy to expand its downstream operations, which started in 1976 with the operation of its first ferronickel plant (FeNi I), followed with the second (FeNi II) plant in 1995, and FeNi III in 2007.

Antam late last year appointed a consortium comprising of IDX-listed engineering and construction firm PT Wijaya Karya Tbk and Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd as the EPC contractor for the Halmahera Timur ferronickel plant project.

The company did not say when the project will be completed. But Antam said previously it hoped to complete the project by the end of 2018.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak