Sebuku Group begins operation of iron ore smelter

Sebuku Group, an iron ore mining group, through subsidiary PT Sebuku Iron Lateritic Ores (SILO) started on Tuesday the operation of its 4 million tons per year-capacity processing facility to produce iron ore concentrates with purity level of 54 percent, reports said.

Kompas quoted President Director of PT SILO, Effendy Tios as saying that this is the company?s first step to expand into the metal industry.

The company?s next state is to develop a more advanced processing facility to produce iron ore concentrates with higher purity level of 88 percent. Construction is slated for the third quarter of this year, in the hope that commercial operation can start in 2016, Effendy said on the sidelines of a visit by Vice Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Susilo Siswoutomo on Tuesday to Sebuku Island, Kotabaru Regency, South Kalimantan, where the processing facility is located.

General Manager of Sebuku Group, Yoseph Swamidharma was quoted as saying by Bisnis Indonesia that the company also plans to build a refinery facility called electric arc furnace (EAF) in 2015, with the hope that commercial operation can be made in 2017, marking the entry of the company into the metal industry.

Effendy, however, said that as the refinery facility would require 300 MW of electricity supply, the company has yet to decide whether to build the refinery in Sebuku or in Tuban, East Java. (*)