Indopura Resources to build $500m CGA smelter

Indonesian mining company PT Indopura Resources plans to build a US$500 million chemical grade alumina (CGA) smelter in Kubu Raya Regency, Central Kalimantan, to take advantage of the local bauxite potential.

Reports quoted Indopura Managing Director M. Arief Winata as saying that construction of the smelter is expected to start in 2014, with the outlook of completing it in 2017.

The company will team up with firms from China and Singapore in developing the project. The foreign firms include Northern Heavy Industries Group Co Ltd (NHI Group), China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC), Zhongtai Construction Group, and Northeastern University Engineering and Research Institute.

?We have set a target for total production of CGA of 1.2 million tons per year. It will be 600,000 tons per year in the first stage, and another 600,000 tons per year in the second stage.

The company plans to also build a 2x25 MW power plant, and a port facility to support the operation of the CGA plant.

Indopura said in November of last year that it planned to build a US$700 million CGA refinery in Batam in cooperation with China?s Hainan Joint Enterprise Business Service Co Ltd. Construction of the 1 million tons per year facility was also scheduled to start in 2014. (*)