MMN,TTN allocate US$ 20 million for Toka Tindung's further exploration
Wednesday, March 21 2012 - 02:50 AM WIB
PT Meares Soputan Mining (MSM) and PT Tambang Tondano Nusajaya (TTN), foreign investment Indonesian limited gold mining companies, allocate US$ 20 million in 2012 for exploration activities at Toka Tindung gold mine project in North Sulawesi.
President Commissioner of MSM and TTN, Bambang Setiawan, told Petromindo.com that the companies are increasing the exploration activity in Toka Tindung in order to raise up the reserves. However Bambang didn't give details of the current reserves of the mine.
"With the current production rate, the mine life in the project will be at least seven to eight years and with the intensive exploration this year hopefully bigger reserves will be identified," said Bambang without elaborating on the amount of project production, just adding that the project has been producing gold since April last year.
As is stated on the company's website, MSM and TTN, both are foreign investment Indonesian limited liability companies, formed for the purposes of exploring and running gold mining activity in the area of Toka Tindung, located 35 km northeast of Manado in North Minahasa region close to Bitung city, in North Sulawesi province.
Majority share of MSM and TTN, is held by Archipelago Resources, Plc, which previously took over the ownership of MSM and TTN from Aurora Gold in 2002, and actively conducting various studies to look at the possibility of Toka Tindung project development to production stage. This study included technical studies, project economics, and banking study for funding.
The project includes two Contracts of Work (COW), namely KK PT MSM, 95% owned by AR Pte Ltd and 5% by PT Archi Indonesia, and KK PT TTN, 95% owned by AR Pte Ltd and 5% by PT Archi Indonesia. Majority share of Archipelago Resources, Plc, is held by Rajawali Corporation (51.1%). In 1986, extensive Contract of Work (CoW) of MSM reached about 741,000 ha. While today still preserved 8.986 ha, or approximately 1.3 percent only of the initial acreage.
Until January 2009, MSM and TTN, have invested a total fund of U.S. $ 110 million, an additional investment of approximately U.S. $ 80 million was made to complete some construction work during the year 2009-2010.
Editing by David Mustakim