Benakat to sell manganese concession to a local firm

By Hiski Darmayana

IDX-listed PT Benakat Integra Tbk, which is primary engaged in coal, and oil and gas infrastructure development, is close to signing a deal with a local company to sell its manganese concession in East Nusa Tenggara Province.

?It (the transaction) is almost completed. But I can?t disclose the transaction value yet, but for certain it?s small,? Finance Director of the company, Michael Wong told Petromindo.com Wednesday. He also declined to disclose the name of the would-be buyer.

Benakat through its subsidiary PT Nusa Energy Raya (NER) owns a 2,600-hectare of manganese concession in Manggarai Regency of East Nusa Tenggara Province. The concession, however, has yet to start production.

Company Commissioner M. Suluhuddin Noor said that it has decided to sell the concession as the government plans to completely ban the export of raw mineral materials starting 2014 as mandated by the 2009 mining law, requiring miners to build domestic smelters to process the ores prior to export.

He said that the company has no capacity to develop the required smelter, and that it wants to focus on coal infrastructure.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak