Cita Mineral books revenue of Rp 255.97b

By Thomas Sembiring

IDX-listed mining firm PT Cita Mineral Investindo Tbk said that it has obtained revenue of Rp 255.97 billion in the first nine months of this year, compared to no revenue at all during the corresponding period of last year.

Cita said in a statement obtained Thursday that the revenue came from the sale of bauxite ores to PT Well Harvest Winning Alumina Refinery (WHW), which operates a 1 million-ton per annum capacity alumina smelter in Ketapang, West Kalimantan. Cita via subsidiary PT Harita Prima owns 30 percent stake in WHW, while the remainder is controlled by China?s Hongqiao Group. The smelter started operation in June of this year, albeit at smaller capacity.

Cita, which has not been able to obtain revenue since 2014 after the government introduced an export ban on mineral ores, started obtaining revenue in December of last year from the sales of metallurgical grade bauxite to WHW.

Meanwhile, Cita technical director Robby Irfan Rafinato told Petromindo.com on Thursday that WHW is now focused on ramping up production of the alumina smelter. The company has produced a total of 225,000 tons of alumina in the first nine months of this year.

WHW plans to develop a total of 4 million tons of alumina smelter. The second 1 million tpa-capacity smelter is expected to start construction process in 2018.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak