KS, Antam to sign iron ore JV agreement in March 2008

State-owned steel manufacturer PT Krakatau Steel (KS) and state miner firm PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (Antam) will formally sign a joint venture (JV) agreement in March 2008 to build an iron ore processing plant in Batulicin, South Kalimantan.

Earlier, the two companies were scheduled to sign the JV agreement in November of this year.

KS?s newly appointed president director Fazwar Bujang was quoted by Investor Daily as saying that KS would be ready to sign a contract regarding the guarantee for supplying 450,000 tons of iron ore per annum from two domestic suppliers, namely PT Silo and PT Yiawan.

Under the joint agreement, the construction of the iron ore processing plant with a production capacity of 300,000 tons per year of sponge iron will commence in June 2008. It will take some 18 months to complete. ?Thus it will start production in 2010 at the latest,? he said in Nov 2007.

Fazwar Bujang said the construction of the plant that processes iron ores into sponge iron would need an investment of between Rp 500 billion and Rp 600 billion (1US$= Rp 9,260) (*)