Singapore firm to build smelter in S. Sumatra

An investor from Singapore has expressed its plan to build an iron ore processing plant in South Sumatra with investment of about US$400 million, Industry Minister MS Hidayat said.

Minister Hidayat said that the Singaporean company would cooperate with the South Sumatra government to build the smelter. ?They will build a iron ore smelter with investment of about US$400 million. It is in line with the downstream policy in our mining industry,? he was quoted as saying by Investor Daily on Tuesday.

Hidayat said that at present least nine investors have unveiled their plan to enter the smelting industry with total investment of about US$6.98 billion. They will build smelters to process iron ore, aluminum, nickel and copper.

According to the mining law, beginning 2014, local miners would be banned from exporting unprocessed mineral ores. The miners should build or cooperate with other smelting firms to process their mineral ores in domestic smelters before they ship the metals. (*)