Aneka Tambang wins $61.6m gold loan

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned miner PT Aneka Tambang won US$61.6 million in credit yesterday in the form of 160,000 troy ounces of gold from a syndicate of five foreign banks to help it produce more gold from its Pongkor mine in West Java.

Aneka Tambang president Darmoko Slamet said the gold loan would help the company double its gold output at Pongkor to five tons a year.

The syndicate is led by Rothschild Australia Bank Ltd. which pledged $16 million worth of gold. Other syndicate members include Bayerische Vereinsbank A.G. which pledged $15 million, Commerzbank International $12 million, PT ING Indonesia $9.6 million and Republic Australia Ltd. $9 million.

The loan, which matures in seven years and must be repaid by gold from the Pongkor mine, has a 4 percent annual interest rate.

The interest rate is scheduled to drop to 2 percent a year by the time the mine has doubled its capacity.

Aneka Tambang financial director Umar Tochfa said the company would sell portions of the gold loan according to its needs to raise cash to expand the mine's capacity. (vin)