SILO requests for withdrawal of smelter fund
Tuesday, February 24 2015 - 03:35 AM WIB
Director of Mineral Development and Management at the ministry Edi Prasodjo was quoted as saying Tuesday that the company made a request on February 12 to withdraw US$1 million of the total $12.3 million smelter commitment fund the company deposited in June of 2014.
The smelter guarantee fund is part of the requirements set by the government to show the seriousness of mining firms to develop required domestic smelter. It is also part of the requirements for the company to be able to resume export of iron concentrates following the introduction of the mineral ore export ban policy in January of last year.
Edi said that the ministry was still in the process of evaluating the request by SILO as the withdrawal can only be made if progress in the construction of the required smelter has reached 60 percent of the targeted works.
SILO operates iron ore mining and a smelter on Sebuku Island, Kotabaru Regency, South Kalimantan. The company is developing a second iron smelter in Sebuku, able to produce iron ore concentrates with higher purity level.
It announced in October of last year that export of iron ore concentrates to China had been suspended due to falling price of the commodity. In addition, Indonesia?s iron concentrates were considered as less competitive compared to products from Australia and the Philippines. (*)