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INCO confirms talks with Inalum on sale of 20 percent of shares
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A haul truck passes workers at a Sulawesi site operated by nickel miner PT Vale Indonesia. (KONTAN/Cheppy A Muchlis)
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ublicly listed nickel miner PT Vale Indonesia (INCO) confirmed on Thursday that the company had communicated with state mining holding company PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum) on the requirement for the former to sell 20 percent of its shares.
Vale Indonesia president director Nicolas Kanter said informal talks had taken place with Inalum president director Budi Gunadi Sadikin.
“Why can’t we talk to Inalum? […] We just need to talk to each other,” he said during his visit to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry in Jakarta recently.
Based on their contract of work that was amended in 2014, INCO is required to divest its 40 percent to Indonesian shareholders. The company had sold 20 percent of shares through the Indonesian Stock Exchange.
The divestment deadline is October 2019, but Nicolas said the company wanted to settle the divestment before the deadline.
“We are still waiting for the government’s response to our letter sent in January. We need the action to be supported by the government,” he said, adding that it did not matter who was appointed by the government to take over INCO’s shares.
Previously, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry’s mineral director Yunus Saefulhak said the ministry had received INCO's divestment proposal. He had reported it to the Finance Ministry and the State-Owned Enterprises Ministry.
“The corporate action will be decided by the government. The divestment has been offered to Inalum and state-owned diversified miner PT Aneka Tambang, among others," he said.
In 2017, INCO managed 95.1 million tons of nickel reserves, making it one of Indonesia's biggest nickel producers. (bbn)
