Timah to start constructon of rare earth mineral plant this year

IDX-listed tin giant PT Timah Tbk plans to start construction of a commercial-scale rare earth mineral processing plant mid this year after securing partners for the project, Kontan reported on Thursday.

The paper quoted Timah Corporate Secretary Agung Nugroho as saying that the National Nuclear Power Agency (Batan) and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have agreed to help the company in developing the project, to be located in Muntok, West Bangka Regency, Bangka Belitung Province. He declined to disclose the name of the SOEs.

Timah last year completed the construction of a mini rare earth plant as pilot project, also located in Muntok, with a tiny capacity of 1,500 kg per year, and total investment of US$40 million.

Agung said that the industry-scale plant will ideally have a capacity of 500 tons per year.

He added that plant is expected to start production in 2018. The plant will process monazite, a by-product of tin production, into high value rare earth metals used as raw material in high-tech consumer goods such as hybrid cars, smart phones, and TVs.

Output will be exported. ?High tech firms such as Apple are interested,? he said. (*)