Cita Mineral starts enjoying revenue as smelter begins operation
Friday, June 17 2016 - 04:42 AM WIB
IDX-listed Cital Mineral Investindo Tbk has started to resume making revenue, thanks to the completion of a smelter grade alumina plant in Ketapang, West Kalimantan.
Cita Independent Director and Corporate Secretary Yusak Pardede said on Thursday that the 1 million-ton per annum capacity smelter, developed by PT Well Harvest Winning Alumina Refinery, a joint venture between the company?s subsidiary PT Harita Prima Abadi (25%) and China?s Hongqiao Group, started commercial operation this month following soft opening at the end of May.
Yusak said that Cita booked a revenue of Rp 27.5 billion as per March 31 of this year, after obtaining revenue of Rp 13.9 billion in December of last year from the sales of metallurgical grade bauxite to Well Harvest.
Cita had not been able to make revenue after the government introduced in early 2014 a ban on the export of mineral ores.
Yusak said that the company?s fortune will further improve ahead following the commercial operation of the alumina smelter.
Until the end of this year, the smelter will produce about 600,000 tons of alumina, or around 6 percent of installed production capacity. This will require about 1.8 million tons of bauxite raw material, Yusak said.
Well Harvest plans to develop a total of 4 million tons per year capacity alumina smelter in Ketapang. The second smelter, with capacity of 1 million tons per year, will require investment of about US$1.15 billion. Using modified Bayer technology, and equipped with a 80 MW power plant and port.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak