India?s Nalco to realize investment plan soon
Friday, January 11 2008 - 08:35 AM WIB
?Two teams to study the project will be formed within three months. The first team will process administrative requirements with the local government and the second team will facilitate Nalco in (securing) business contracts,? the ministry?s Director General of Metal, Machine, Textile and Miscellaneous Industries Ansari Bukhori was quoted by Detik.Com as saying following the signing of the MoU.
According to Ansari, Nalco will first invest to build a coal-fired 3x250 Megawatt (MW) power plant consuming between 4 and 5 million tons of coal per year. After that, it will build a smelter that will be able to produce 250,000 tons of aluminum ingots per year.
?The production capacity will later be increased to 500,000 tons per year. The construction period is between three and four years,? Ansari said, adding that the smelter will occupy 1,000 hectares of land in South Sumatra.
Nalco?s Finance Director B.L. Bagda said Nalco would import the raw material for the smelter from India. Nalco will process bauxite into alumina in its facilities in India. The alumina will be then shipped to South Sumatra to be further processed into aluminum ingots.
?We shall invest US$3.2 billion for the project and the investment could increase to $5 billion in five years,? Bagda said.
Meanwhile, state owned coal miner PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam Tbk (PTBA), which operates a huge coal mine in Muara Enim, South Sumatra, voiced on Friday readiness to provide coal supplies to Nalco?s power plant.
?Thus far, we don?t have any contract (with Nalco) as (the project) is still under business study. But, the coal reserve that we have is big enough to supply Nalco,? Edi Purwanto, PTBA?s Senior Manager, said following the signing of the MoU. (Bodega)