Lumbung Mineral to start smelter construction in May

Mining firm PT Lumbung Mineral Sentosa plans to start construction of a US$10 million galena smelter in May of this year, in the hope that it could be completed end of next year, reports said on Friday.

Bisnis Indonesia quoted Lumbung Mineral Director Ricky Gowdjali as saying that the company was currently in the process of purchasing the necessary equipment and completing land acquisition as well as environmental impact study. ?Construction will start in May,? he told reporters after reporting the progress of the smelter project to the Directorate General of Mineral and Coal on Thursday.

Lumbung Mineral plans to develop a smelter that would produce galena ingot from lead and zinc concentrates.

Ricky said that as construction progress of the smelter has been classified to reach 25 percent, the company has been able to obtain export permit for tis mineral concentrates for the January-June 2015 period with lead concentrates export quota of 8,697 tons, and zinc concentrates export quota of 5,839 tons.

The company exports half of the concentrates to China and another half to South Korea. (*)