Antam to invest $70m in S. Kalimantan iron ore JV project

State-owned miner PT Aneka Tambang (Antam) said that it will have an estimated 40 percent stake in an iron ores smelter joint venture project with PT Krakatau Steel (KS) in South Kalimantan.

 

“Antam’s ownership is between 30 and 40 percent, which means that we will invest between US$60 million and $70 million,” said Antam’s president director Deddy Aditya Soemanegara in Jakarta Wednesday.

 

According to Deddy, KS is likely to have a bigger ownership because the company will handle most technological matters, while Antam will be responsible for production matters.

 

Currently, Antam and KS are in talk with mining companies that produce iron ore in the region. “We are still conducting a survey to find iron ore reserves,” he said.

 

Deddy said that his party (Antam and KS) were willing to purchase iron ores feedstock at competitive prices to prevent them from being exported abroad. “In this way, domestic industries will not suffer from the shortage of feedstock (for iron ores),” he said.

 

Meanwhile, Antam’s operation director Alwin Syah Loebis said that construction of the plant is expected to start in 2008. At the initial phase, Antam and KS will build a small-scale iron ores smelter with an output of 300,000 tons of iron ores per year. (*)