Pongkor's gold production to rise
Pongkor's gold production to rise
PONGKOR, West Java (JP): State-owned PT Aneka Tambang is to substantially increase its gold and silver production from its mine here, about 100 km southwest of Jakarta.
The head of the company's Pongkor gold mining unit, Amran Abdullah S., said on Saturday that the mine's annual production will be increased from the current level of 1.8 tons of gold and two tons of silver to 5 tons of gold and 10 tons of silver in 1998.
The increase will come from the development of a second processing plant and the construction of a shaft to facilitate ore extraction.
Abdullah said the company will need an investment of Rp 90 billion (US$37.8 million) for the production increase.
He pointed out that some Rp 30 billion will be derived from its own equity and the other Rp 60 billion is expected to come from loans to be provided by a syndicate of foreign banks.
He refused to identify the banks but said that they would provide the loans with Pongkor's gold reserves as collateral.
According to Amran, the company will soon build a second plant with a processing capacity of 700 tons of ore per day. This will increase Pongkor's total processing capacity to 1,200 tons of ore per day.
He noted that every ton of ore in Pongkor contains some 17.14 grams of gold and 154.28 grams of silver.
To increase the supply of ore to the processing plants, the company is now constructing a shaft that will facilitate and enlarge its mining activities in the Mount Pongkor region. Three experts from South Africa, one of the world's major producers of gold, are acting as advisors on the construction.
According to a survey conducted in 1991 by PT Aneka Tambang, the Pongkor mine contains a proven reserve of 6,022,614 tons of ore, which will be able to be mined for about 15 years.
Currently, with only one processing plant, the Pongkor mine has absorbed an investment of Rp 100 billion, of which some Rp 56 billion was derived from a loan from the state-owned Bank Dagang Negara.
According to the Directorate General of Mines, Indonesia last year produced 20.4 tons of gold, 42.3 tons of gold in concentrate, 181.8 tons of silver and 81.9 tons of silver in concentrate. (13)