Central Omega appoints Chinese contractors for smelter project
Thursday, February 12 2015 - 01:41 AM WIB
IDX-listed mining company PT Central Omega Resources Tbk through its subsidiary PT COR Industri Indonesia (CORII) has appointed two Chinese firms China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation (CMC) and China Machinery Industry Construction Group Ind (SINOCONST) as the EPC contractors for its planned nickel pig iron smelter project in North Morowali, Central Sulawesi.
The agreements with CMC and SINOCONST were signed on Wednesday, Central Omega said in a statement.
CORII, which is 60 percent owned by Central Omega and 40 percent owned by PT Macrolink Nickel Development, plans to build an NPI smelter with total capacity of 300,000 tons per year. Total investment requirement is about US$400 million including for the construction of a coke plant.
The smelter will require total nickel ores supply of 1.5 million tons per year, to be provided by Cenral Omega mining units including PT Bumi Konawe Abadi, PT Mulia Pacific Resources, and PT Itamara Nusantara, reports said.
The company statement said construction of the first phase with a capacity of 100,000 tons per year will start this year, in the hope it could be completed in the first semester of 2016. About 250 hectares land near the mine sites of Central Omega nickel mines have been allocated for the first-phase project, which is estimated to cost around $150 million.
Construction of the second phase will start in 2016, and the third phase in 2017, the company said.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak