PT Antam to replace chief commissioner

The board of directors of state mining firm PT Aneka Tambang (Antam) Tbk plans to hold a shareholders meeting to appoint a new president commissioner to replace Rozik B. Soetjipto who has resigned.

Antam director for human resources and general affairs, Ismail Tangka said in Kendari, the capital of Southeast Sulawesi, on Friday that Rozik, former minister of public works, had vacated his post as Antam chief commissioner since two years ago.

According to Ismail, Rozik's term as chief commissioner would actually last until 2002. However, as he had tendered his resignation, the management would call a shareholders meeting to select a new chief commissioner.

However, Ismail could not give the exact date for the shareholders meeting.

Accompanied by Antam spokesman Wiryono, Ismail explained that the shareholders meeting would only have one agenda, namely to select the chief commissioner. Therefore, other commissioners and members of the board of directors would remain the same.

Islami refused to name the strongest candidate for Antam chief commissioner.

When asked about the possibility of Antam to include Southeast Sulawesi governor H. La Ode Kaimoeddin in the company's board of commissioners, Ismail said that it was possible. However, he noted that it would not happen in the next shareholders meeting because it would have single agenda, namely appointing chief commissioner.

Ismail noted that Governor Kaimoeddin could be a good candidate to sit in Antam's board of commissioners because he knew well about Antam's operations, especially Antam's nickel and ferronickel mining and processing plants in Pomala'a, Kendari.

"Pak governor had contacted us about this matter, and we told him that the Southeast Sulawesi administration needed to make intensive approaches to Antam shareholders," Ismail said.

Currently Antam has five commissioners, four of them are officials from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and the other one from the Ministry of Finance.

Besides its nickel and ferronickel mining operations in Pomala'a, Antam also has nickel mining operation in Gebe, North Maluku, gold mining operation in West Java, and gold processing plant in Jakarta.

Nevertheless, some 60 percent of Antam's revenues comes from its nickel and ferronickel mining operation in Southeast Sulawesi.

Last year, Antam exported a total of 9,139 tons of ferronickel dan 259,000 tons of nickel to Japan and other countries. As of September this year, Antam had exported a total of 6,750 tons of ferronickel and 281,000 tons of nickel.

The company recorded a net profit of Rp 97.5 billion in the first quarter of this year. (*)