Antam to commission Indonesia?s 1st CGA plant

IDX-listed state mining firm PT ANTAM (Persero) Tbk announced on Wednesday that Indonesia?s first Chemical Grade Alumina (CGA) plant, located in Tayan, West Kalimantan, is currently preparing to commence the commissioning which is scheduled at the end of October 2013. As of end of August 2013, the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) progress of the Tayan CGA project has reached 97%, the company said.

Construction of the Tayan CGA project began since June 2011 and is intended to process ANTAM?s bauxite reserves to produce up to 300,000 tonnes of CGA per annum. The Tayan CGA Project is developed by PT Indonesia Chemical Alumina, a jointly controlled entity between ANTAM and Showa Denko K.K. (SDK) of Japan. ANTAM owns 80% shares of PT ICA and SDK holds the remaining 20%. The project is ?nanced by the two parent companies? equity investments in PT ICA, a loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) as well as commercial debt.

The CGA products will be exported as well as sold to the Indonesian domestic market. 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 Alexander Ginting