Antam to spend another Rp 841 billion for FeNi III plant

PT Aneka Tambang (Antam) will allocate another Rp 841 billion (US$=Rp9,100) in 2005 to finance the completion of the company's third ferronickel processing plant FeNi III in South Sulawesi, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Monday.

Antam's president director Deddy Aditya Sumanagara said that the amount of the funds to be allocated for the FeNi III in 2005 would be slightly lower than the Rp 1.3 trillion allocated in 2004.

Deddy said that besides completing the FeNI III plant, Antam would also further increase the processing capacity of the existing second plant FeNi II in a bid to further raise the company's ferronickel production.

Meanwhile the company's corporate secretary Ashur Wasif, said that the construction of the FeNi III had been 50 percent completed and he hoped it could begin its operation in 2006.

He told Investor daily that the new ferronickel refinery would be able to increase Antam's ferronickel production to 26,000 tons a year from 11,000 tons at present. According to him, the construction of the new processing plant would cost about US$320 million. "About US$90 million of the total cost will be financed by the company's equity while the other $230 million to be financed by loan," he said. (*)