Antam to cease production at Pongkor mine in 2019
Wednesday, September 9 2015 - 04:47 AM WIB
IDX-listed mining company PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (Antam) said that it plans to stop production activities at the Pongkor gold mine in Bogor, West Java, in 2019 as reserves are depleting.
"It is estimated that in 2019, gold production in Pongkor will be ended and enter a period of post-mining," said Corporate Secretary of Antam, Trihartono.
According to Trihartono, Antam initially planned to shut down the Pongkor mine in 2014, but the company extended the production plan until 2019 after finding new reserves.
Gold production at Pongkor last year reached 1.6 tons, much lower than its peak output of 4,175 in 2013.
"At the time, in the production of 1 ton of ore, there are 12 grams of gold content," he said, adding that now, in the production of 1 ton of ore, there are only 6 grams of gold content.
Trihartono said per July 2015 data, ore production at Pongkor was as much as 222,000 WMT and gold production reached 913 kg.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak