:: FeNi III Commercial Operations Begins

PT Antam Tbk (Indonesia) has announced that its new FeNI III smelter has begun commercial operations following the handover of the unit from the turnkey, or Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor, an unincorporated consortium of Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Mitsui Co. Ltd.

FeNi III has maximum capacity of 15,000 tonnes nickel contained in ferronickel if it operates at the full power load of 42 MW and uses ore feed with a 2.38% nickel grade. To ensure long term and stable operation, currently FeNi III is using laterite ore feed with a nickel grade of 2.1-2.2% and will operate at a power load of 36­38 MW or 85% - 90% of capacity. Antam anticipates production of 20,000­22,000 tonnes of nickel contained in ferronickel in 2007, higher than the ferronickel production of 14,474 tonnes in 2006.