Inco boosts nickel output

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed nickel producer PT International Nickel Indonesia (Inco) has revised its production target for 1998 to 100 million pounds of nickel in matte.

The amount is eight million pounds more than its initial target, since the company resumed the operation of its hydropower plant.

Company president Scott Hand said in a statement sent to The Jakarta Post yesterday that Inco, based in Soroako, South Sulawesi, had resumed the operation of its 165-megawatt (MW) hydropower plant following an increase in the water level of Lake Towuti, the source of water for the power plant.

Inco gets 85 percent of its power from the hydropower plant.

The power plant has not been fully operational since mid- November following a long drought caused by the El Nio weather phenomenon. The drought decreased the water level of the lake.

"The company is now on target to meet its expanded 1998 production of 100 million pounds of nickel in matte. Production for 1997 is expected to be about 70 million pounds," Hand said.

Inco is 59 percent owned by Inco Limited of Canada and 22 percent by Japan's Sumitomo Metal Mining Co Ltd.

Inco chief executive officer Rumengan Musu said the drought would not affect the company's US$580 million expansion to increase annual production by 50 percent to 150 million pounds of nickel in matte in 2000. (jsk)