President to dedicate new plant

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto is scheduled to dedicate tomorrow the country's first phosphate plant.

The plant, located in Ciamis, West Java, is owned by PT Istana Kanematsu Indonesia. Istana Kanematsu's president, Julindo S.A., said the company is 60 percent owned by PT Elang Tanah Mas and 40 percent by Japan's Kanematsu Corporation.

He said Istana Kanematsu holds a concession right over 156 hectares of land containing about eight million tons of phosphate reserves in Sidomulih village, Ciamis.

The company, he said, has applied for another concession right to over 3,000 hectares of phosphate-rich land in Ciamis and in the neighboring regency of Tasikmalaya.

Julindo was quoted yesterday by Republika as saying that his company has invested Rp 130 billion (US$55 million) for the mining, while the Agency for Technology Assessment and Application (BPPT) has given technological support since the preparations for the establishment of the plant in 1994.

In the first years, the plant will produce 720,000 tons of phosphate fertilizer a year, which will later be increased to one million tons a year.

Aside from phosphate fertilizer, he said, the plant will also produce other phosphate-related products, including animal feed.

Scientists have long believed that Indonesia lacked phosphate until surveys conducted by BPPT discovered about 300 million tons of phosphate reserves in various locations, including West, Central and East Java, West Sumatra and East Timor.

Indonesia has thus far imported phosphate from Middle Eastern countries and Morocco for its fertilizer production. (jsk)