PT Inco plan to form JV company with Antam

Indonesia-listed nickel mining company PT International Nickel Indonesia Tbk (Inco) and state owned mining company PT Aneka Tambang (Antam) plan to set a joint venture (JV) to run both upstream and downstream nickel mining businesses.

Inco's president director Tony Wenas said in Jakarta on Thursday that negotiations were currently underway on the establishment of the JV.

He said that the JV, if approved, would conduct both nickel mining and processing activities. ?The JV may also for example build a smelting plant to process Inco?s nickel output,? he added.

Tony also said that Inco would return about 32,000 ha of its 218,000-ha mining area to the government. ?We have formally informed the government about the plan,? he said.

According to him, Inco originally controlled about 6.6 million ha of concession, but it has returned the larger part of the concession to the government. Now, the concession covers only about 218,000 ha, and only about 10,000 ha have been exploited. (godang)