Gulf makes final payment for two smelters

By Romel S. Gurky

ASX-listed Gulf Manganese Corp Ltd said it has completed the final payment to South Africa?s Transalloys Pty Limited for the purchase of the first two smelters for its Kupang smelting hub facility in Indonesia?s East Nusa Tenggara Province.

The company said in a statement last week that the refurbishment of these two smelters are now underway in Pretoria, South Africa, prior to their shipment to Kupang.

?The smelter refurbishment program in Johannesburg is a key component of the Kupang construction program. It is expected that the program will be completed in the fourth quarter (of this year), whereupon the components are transported to Durban for final inspection and containerizing. The smelters will then be shipped to Indonesia,? Gulf said in the statement.

The company said that this ensures that the development timeline for the Kupang smelting hub remain largely unabated as the company targets the commissioning of the facility in the first half of 2018.

?Indonesian shipping agents have been selected to manage and supervise logistics and permitting, and will manage the process from Durban through to Kupang. It is expected that the shipment will go direct to the Tenau Port at Kupang, located a short distance from the Kupang smelting hub site,? the company said.

The company?s proposed Kupang smelting hub facility will contain eight furnaces built in stages over five years, targeting the production of a premium quality 78%+ manganese alloy.

Gulf said on Monday it has received another A$1 million from sophisticated investors as part of a total $12 million capital raising program to help finance the ferromanganese smelter project. In June, the company received $7 million worth of funds. It expects another $3 million no later than September 30 of this year to help finance the Kupang project.

Gulf in May of this year appointed XRAM Technologies Pty Ltd as the EPCM contractor, to deliver the Kupang smelting project.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak