Newmont secures US$600 million loan for expansion

PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara expects to raise about US$600 million loan from Bank Mandiri, BNP Paribas and Bank Sumitomo Mitsui of Japan to partly finance the company?s expansion projects.

The company?s president director Martiono Hadianto said in Jakarta on Tuesday that using bank loans was part of the company?s strategy to finance its expansion projects which include exploration activities.

In addition to bank loans, Newmont which operates a large copper and gold mine in the Batuhijau, West Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara will launch an initial public offering (IPO) to raise additional funds for the expansion.

The schedule of the IPO would be decided after the divestment of the remaining 7 percent of the company?s shares was completed, he said, ?We will begin the IPO preparation soon after the divestment is completed,? Martiono said.

Martiono earlier said that gold and copper production would decline by about 60 percent this year as the company was conducting the sixth stripping phase at the company?s Batuhijau mine. He said gold production would decline to between 226,000 and 288,000 ounces this year, while copper would drop to 247 million pound.

According to him, the decline in the production would continue until 2013 but in 2014, the production would rebound.

NNT produced 737,000 ounces of gold and 542 million pounds of copper in 2010. During the year, the company?s total sales reached 656,000 ounces of gold and 489 million pounds of copper. (*)