Harita: Construction progress of alumina smelter reaches 80%

By Thomas Sembiring

PT Harita Prima Mineral Abadi said that construction progress of the first phase of its alumina smelter project in Ketapang, West Kalimantan, has reached 80 percent as per December.

?The first phase has reached 80 percent, and will probably be completed between February and April,? said Erry Sofyan, President Director of Harita, to Petromindo.com, Wednesday.

He said that once completed, the smelter will enter production trial as it seeks to quickly make sales to generate income for the company.

He said that commercial production is expected to start six months after production trial stage. Nevertheless, the alumina smelter is expected to only achieve about half of its installed production capacity of 1 million tons per year in 2016.

Erry said that sales will be first prioritized in the domestic market.

Harita, a subsidiary of IDX-listed mining firm PT Cita Mineral Investindo Tbk, through PT Well Harvest Winning Alumina Refinery, a joint venture with China?s Hongqiao Group, is developing a 4 million-ton per annum alumina smelter in four phases.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak