Antam will use new technology in new plant

State owned general mining company PT Aneka Tambang Tbk plans to use a copper cooler technology in its third ferronickel smelting plant FeNi III which will be built by RWE Solution Gmbh of Germany, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Friday.

Company?s corporate secretary Dohar Siregar said in Jakarta on Thursday that Antam and the German company which recently won the tender for the plant?s engineering procurement and construction would soon discuss the possible use of the new technology.

According to him, the new technology could boost ferronickel production to 15,000 tons from about 13,000 tons under a conventional technology. But he said that the change in the technology would inflict the construction costs of the smelting plant.

Dohar said that the new technology has been successfully applied in several mining companies in South America. ?Cerro Matosso (a mining firm in South America) has used the new technology for two years and it has significantly boosted production. So why not we use it in the new plant,? he said.

He said that the company would go ahead with its pan to raise $60 million from bond offering to partly finance the construction of the new plant although German financial institution Hermes is still committed providing the financing for the plant. (*)