Airborne survey firm planned

JAKARTA (JP): PT Gatari Air Service, a Humpuss Group holding company controlled by Hutomo Mandala Putra, will establish a US$15 million airborne survey company in cooperation with Carson Service Inc. of the United States.

"The planned company will be 100 percent owned by Gatari Air, while Carson will provide technology," Gatari Air's president, Eddy Pramono, told reporters yesterday.

Eddy noted the planned company will invest $12 million in a plane and equipment and $3 million in the technology from Carson.

The planned company will provide aeromagnetic and aerogravity data, which fetches a price on the international market of about $200 a square kilometer, to mining companies, he said.

He said that the company, which will hire survey experts from the Ministry of Mines and Energy, will concentrate on surveying the eastern provinces.

Director General of Geology and Mineral Resources Adjat Sudrajat said that the government currently focuses its surveys in only the western provinces for economic reasons.

"It can be said that geological data of eastern provinces is blank," he said.

He said the government is still inviting investors who want to enter the geological data surveying business.(04)