Consortium to build $200m power plant

Consortium to build $200m power plant

JAKARTA (JP): A consortium of the state electricity company PT
PLN, the state mining company PT Aneka Tambang, a private firm PT
Iroda, and a foreign company will build a 96-megawatt (MW) hydro-
power plant in Pomalaa, Southeast Sulawesi.

"The US$200 million power project is expected to come on
stream in 1998," Aneka Tambang's president Darmoko Slamet was
quoted by Antara as saying in Pomalaa.

He refused to mention the name of the foreign company.

The hydro power plant will harness the Oko-oko, Komoro and
Huko-huko rivers near Aneka Tambang's nickel mining concession
areas in Pomalaa to generate the electricity, he said.

The electricity needs of Aneka Tambang's Pomalaa ferronickel
processing plant are currently supplied by a nearby 29-MW diesel
power plant, Darmoko said.

He said the hydro-power project would be built to support
Aneka Tambang's expansion plans to increase its current annual
production capacity from 11,000 tons of ferronickel to 22,000
tons in 1999.

Aneka Tambang exported 70 percent of the 10,341 tons of
ferronickel it produced last year to Japan and the remaining 30
percent to South Korea, the United States and European countries.

Darmoko said his company also plans to build a stainless steel
plant using its ferronickel as a raw material but he declined to
give further details.

Besides nickel, Aneka Tambang also produces gold, silver, iron
sand and bauxite. (04)