Aneka Tambang records 115% rise in net profit

JAKARTA (JP): The state-owned general mining company PT Aneka Tambang recorded a 115.3 percent increase in its net profit to Rp 21.5 billion (US$9.5 million) last year from Rp 10 billion in 1993.

The company's president, Darmoko Slamet, said at a hearing with the House Mines and Manufacturing Commission yesterday that his company's total assets reached Rp 666.6 billion as of last December, an increase of 26 percent from December 1993.

He noted that his company's total revenues last year reached Rp 232 billion, most of which came from the exports of its main products, including nickel, ferronickel, bauxite and gold.

In the 1994-1995 fiscal year, Darmoko said, Aneka Tambang produced 2.4 million tons of nickel, of which 1.85 million tons were exported to earn $29.3 million. In the same fiscal year, it produced and exported 5,500 tons of ferronickel, valued at US$35.5 million.

Darmoko predicted that his company's nickel production will likely increase to 1.9 million tons this fiscal year and 1.95 million tons next fiscal year. The company's nickel production level may then remain flat at the level of 1.95 million tons until 1999.

The company's ferronickel production level will likely increase to 10,000 tons this fiscal year and 11,000 tons next fiscal year, which will remain the same until 1999.

In 1994-1995 fiscal year, Aneka Tambang produced and exported 1.05 million tons of bauxite valued at $12 million. This fiscal year, the company plans to produce and export one million tons of bauxite at $11.9 million. Its bauxite production level is projected to remain steady until 1999.

From its gold and silver production, Aneka Tambang exports very few of these metals. Last year, the company generated US$616,000 from gold exports, as compared to $16.3 million in 1993. In 1994-1995 fiscal year, the company produced 2.3 tons of gold worth Rp 62.6 billion (US$28 million) and 24.5 tons of silver worth Rp 6.2 billion.

The company forecasts an increase its gold production to 2.5 tons in each of the 1995-1996 and 1996-1997 fiscal years and five tons for the following years until 1999. Meanwhile, its silver production is expected to increase to 28 tons this fiscal year, which will remain the same until year 2000.

Darmoko said Aneka Tambang planned to reactivate its gold production unit in Cikotok, West Java. Cokotok's gold mine was closed in the mid-1980s due to its shrinking gold reserves.

"We have conducted extensive exploration activities in the areas around Cikotok and we found a new reserve of some five tons of gold there," Darmoko said.

He noted that his company would soon float shares on stock markets to generate funds to finance a number of mining projects, including the exploitation of the gold reserve near Cikotok.

"We have been prepared to float shares since last year. However, we're waiting for the market sentiment to get better," Darmoko said. He declined to give details on his company's going- public plans.

Aneka Tambang currently operates nickel mines and processing plants in southeast Sulawesi and Maluku, a gold mine in Gunung Pongkor, West Java, a Bauxite mine on Bintan island in Riau and a metal smelting and refining plant in Jakarta. (rid)