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tate-owned diversified mining firm Aneka Tambang (Antam) sees rosy business ahead as it predicts its newly launched jewelry brand will win the hearts of conventional investors.

Jakarta-based private employee Erna, 42, has been keeping gold bars at home for the past five years. For her, gold has proven to be a stable alternative asset that can provide an easy way out when dealing with tough times.

“So whenever I really need to get additional money to counter unexpected spending, I can just pawn it for cash,” she said on Monday. “It’s still a better investment than saving money at banks, especially considering banks’ low deposit rates.”

People’s love affair with gold, which is traditionally considered a safe investment instrument, is exactly what Antam seeks to leverage, especially with the launch of its new jewelry brand LM on Monday.

Under the brand, the company offers limited necklace and bezel products, which complement its previous gold bar series embellished with batik motifs — kawung, mega mendung, parang barong and sido mukti — that were launched late last year.

Since launch of the batik gold bars, Antam has sold about 6,000 pieces and expects to sell at least 1,500 of its new jewelry products within the next two or three months.

“Previously, we just sold gold products to our customers as investments; then we thought that we should sell fashion products too,” Dodi Martimbang, general manager of Antam’s gold unit, Logam Mulia, said during the LM launch.

Antam has sold about 7 tons of gold since the beginning of the year and aims to sell 10 tons by year-end. The launch of its batik jewelry series is expected to boost, or even surpass, the sales target.

Antam hopes the surge in gold sales would eventually benefit the company’s gold-depository service called Gold Safety Management Planning (Brankas), which was officially launched in April.

Dodi said people’s growing appetite for gold had to be balanced with the presence of a safe storage place. “That’s why many people are enthusiastic about Brankas. Even our staff members have often been called to arisan [social gatherings] to present information about the Brankas services,” he said.

Antam currently produces from 2 to 2.5 tons of gold per year. Apart from the guaranteed pure fine gold, the company’s fine gold bars are also certified by the London Bullion Market Association.

Data from the firm show that the biggest demand for gold still comes from its boutiques in Jakarta, followed by others in Bali and Yogyakarta.

However, gold demand in rural and suburban areas has been growing rapidly. Jakarta-based assisted e-commerce startup Kudo, which relies on its 100,000 agents nationwide to attract people in those areas to make online purchases, has made a fortune from gold sales, especially in East Java.

“Lots of people, like those in East Java, buy gold as a long-term investment,” Kudo chief operating officer Agung Nugroho told The Jakarta Post.

Indonesia currently accounts for about 4 percent of global gold production, half of which originates from the giant Grasberg mine in Papua.

The country’s annual gold production reached 109.9 tons in 2014, less than a fourth of China’s production of 465.7 tons, according to Thomson Reuters’ GFMS metals research team.

GFMS has predicted early in 2016 that global production of gold will fall 3 percent by year-end, ending a seven-year period of rising output. Last year alone, global gold mine production stood at 3,155 tons.

Meanwhile, Antam’s first-half financial report revealed that it booked Rp 4.16 trillion (US$321.45 million) in revenues, down by almost 50 percent compared to the same period of 2015. Its bottom line, however, ended in the black with Rp 11.03 billion in net profits, overturning last year’s result of Rp 395.99 billion in net losses.

Antam had Rp 29.69 trillion in total assets by the end of June. Its liabilities amounted to Rp 11.38 trillion and its equities stood at Rp 18.31 trillion. Its shares — sold under the “ANTM” code — surged to Rp 770 apiece on Tuesday from Rp 645 apiece the day before. (vps)