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Antam commissions facilities in Pomalaa ferronickel plant

Diversified miner Aneka Tambang (Antam) announced on Friday that it had commissioned several facilities in its Pomalaa ferronickel plant expansion project, saying that the project has been running according to the company schedule

Anggi M. Lubis (The Jakarta Post)
Sat, October 4, 2014

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Antam commissions facilities in Pomalaa ferronickel plant

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iversified miner Aneka Tambang (Antam) announced on Friday that it had commissioned several facilities in its Pomalaa ferronickel plant expansion project, saying that the project has been running according to the company schedule.

The US$573 million expansion project of the plant was 68 percent complete with the commissioning of the port, belt conveyor and smelter, Antam announced in a statement published in the Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX) on Friday.

'€œThe commissioning of several facilities from the Pomalaa plant expansion project shows that we are on track to conclude this project. With the estimation that the project will be completed in 2015 and supported by the projection that nickel prices will rise in the upcoming years, we are sure that this project will fetch a significant return on investment and profits for our company,'€ Antam President Director Tato Miraza said in the statement,

The plant expansion project, which is located in South Kalimantan, is being developed gradually in eight stages and is expected to boost the company'€™s expansion output by 40 percent.

Antam expects to fully commence all operations in Pomalaa in the second quarter of 2015 and to increase output to between 27,000 and 30,000 tons of nickel in ferronickel (TNi). It currently produces 18,000 to 20,000 TNi in the plant, according to the company'€™s annual report.

With the new port operating, Antam expected its nickel ore unloading process to be much faster and more efficient.

The new port could facilitate vessels of up to 12,000 deadweight tonnage (DWT) in size and have an unloading rate of up to 2x500 tons an hour, much faster as compared to the company'€™s previous method of using heavy backhoe equipment.

The four-kilometer belt conveyor, on the other hand, will replace the dump trucks that were previously used to transport nickel ore and coal from the port to the plant. The belt conveyor is also designed to increase work safety.

Meanwhile, the new smelter unit is an addition to the company'€™s existing smelter unit in the facility.

'€œThe completion of the project will decrease financial expenses at the Pomalaa plant and Antam will be among the ferronickel producers with the lowest costs,'€ the company'€™s statement reads.

Antam'€™s sales plunged in the first half year-on-year (y-o-y) as prices of its main commodities remained bearish, while its revenue took a beating by the mineral ore export ban policy that was imposed in January.

Antam'€™s quarterly report showed that its sales in the first half dove by about 35 percent to Rp 3.99 trillion ($338 milion), compared to the Rp 6.12 trillion it generated in the same period last year.

The company suffered a net loss of up to Rp 638.58 billion between January and June, compared with a net profit of Rp 373.13 billion last year.

Ferronickel replaced nickel as Antam'€™s second-biggest sales contributor after gold, contributing about 44 percent of the total figure with Rp 1.74 trillion, supported by rising prices of the commodity, as well as increasing sales volumes.

The value of ferronickel sales rose by about 58 percent compared to the first half of last year, while its sales volume was up by 27 percent to 8,900 TNi. Its price was up by 5 percent y-o-y to $7.58 per pound.

Gold remained the company'€™s biggest contributor to its total sales, accounting for 49 percent of the total figure.

Gold'€™s contribution to the firm'€™s first-half sales, however, was 31 percent lower than the Rp 2.82 trillion recorded in the first half of last year, performance attributed to not only lower selling prices but also to a slight drop in the production and sales volumes, making ferronickel a promising commodity for the company to explore further.

'€”JP/Anggi M. Lubis

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