Indosmelt plans $500m smelter in South Sulawesi
Tuesday, November 18 2008 - 11:59 PM WIB
Local firm PT Indosmelt has signed an MoU with Australian smelting technology firm Ausmelt Limited to develop 100,000 TPA copper cathode smelter in South Sulawesi, a company official said on Tuesday.
Indosmelt CEO Natsir Mansyur estimated the smelter to cost US$500 million with completion seen in 2013.
The smelter would process 250,000 TPA of copper concentrate from PT.Freeport Indonesia (PTFI), a copper-gold mining unit of US mining giant Freeport McMoRan.
Natsir said the company had approached PTFI for copper concentrate supply, but thus far, no deal had been closed.
The company is taking advantage of the Mining Law draft, which, if enacted, would gradually ban concentrate and ore export and obliged miners to process their mining products domestically. (bernard)