Harita Builds Alumina Smelter

PT Harita Prima Abadi Mineral is building a smelter plant to process bauxite into alumina, with a one million ton per year capacity in Ketapang, West Kalimantan. Thamrin Sihite, Director General of Mineral and Coal at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, said that the smelter project will operate in 2012.

Bauxite for the project will be supplied from mines owned by the company. Harita Prima’s produced alumina will be used as raw material for PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum) in North Sumatra. "Inalum used to import all of its alumina," Thamrin said on Thursday.

Harita Prima Abadi Mineral is a bauxite ore mining company with approximately 71,733 hectares concession area. Harita is currently managing mining concessions in the Cukaria and Cempedak Blocks in Ketapang, West Kalimantan. In a feasibility study conducted by PT Aroma Citragading in 2005, it was projected that Harita’s mines have around 130 thousand tons of production capacity per month.

Thamrin said that the Ministry of Energy are giving the private sector the opportunity to build the smelter as implementation of Article 110 and 140 of Law No. 4/2009 on Mineral and Coal. It is stated that all domestic mineral mining companies are required to purify/refine their produce no later than five years since the rule’s enactment.

"Today, we only have a copper smelter in Gresik. With the implementation of this rule, companies such as PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara and PT Freeport Indonesia can no longer export raw materials, so these can be used for national interest," he said.

Previously, PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara, the country’s second largest copper and gold company PT Freeport Indonesia, canceled its plan to build a smelter at its mine in West Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara as it is considered inefficient. Kasan Mulyono, Public Relations Manager of Newmont, said that Newmont will make use of available processing plants in Indonesia. Currently, 20 to 30 percent of Newmont’s concentrates are processed at the smelter in Gresik. Newmont will also be supplying concentrates to PT Nusantara Smelting in Bontang, East Kalimantan, which is expected to begin commissioning in 2014.

Another company that will also build smelters is PT Aneka Tambang Tbk. The state-owned mineral mining company plans to build a chemical grade alumina smelter in Tayan, West Kalimantan and a ferronickel smelter in East Halmahera. Other companies that are developing smelters are PT Delma Mining Corporation in Bulungan, East Kalimantan, the Solway Group, and Billy Jillin Horoc, who is managing a smelter in North Konawe, Southeast Sulawesi with PT Billy Internasional.