Chinese miner to invest $1.06b in Sulawesi

PT Sulawesi Mining Investment, an Indonesian-Chinese joint venture company, plans to invest about US$1.06 billion to open a nickel mine and build a smelter in Central Sulawesi, The Jakarta Globe reported on Friday.

Alexander Barus, vice president of Bintangdelapan Mineral, the Indonesian firm in the venture, said that some $96 million would go toward the smelter and support of a power plant in Morowali, Central Sulawesi, while $100 million would be for the mine and supporting facilities.

Halim Mina, vice president commissioner of Sulawesi Mining, said that the investment would be split into two stages. Sulawesi Mining is 55 percent owned by China?s Dingxin and 45 percent by Indonesia?s Bintangdelapan.

?For the first phase, the investment will stand at $340 million and the second phase at $640 million,? Halim said.

?The plan is for the first phase to become operational at the end of 2014,? he added, noting that about 30 percent of the first phase had already been completed.

He said the smelter?s output would mostly be exported to China, but gave no details, adding only that its products would be marketed domestically ?in line with the demand? for nickel. (*)