Indonesia’s Antam gets additional export permit for bauxite and nickel

After the limited allowance of ore export in Indonesia, state-owned diversified miner PT Aneka Tambang (Antam) has obtained a new permit recommendation from Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry for bauxite and nickel exports.  This will support their plans to boost production and sales of bauxite and nickel in 2018.

Antam announced on Wednesday that they received one-year recommendation to export 840,000 wet metric tons (wmt) of washed bauxite with an aluminium oxide content of 42%or more. The permit also allowed export of 2.7 million wet metric tons (wmt) of low-grade nickel ore.

A year ago in March 2017, Antam had obtained a one-year recommendation to export 2.7 million wmt of low-grade nickel ore and 850,000 wmt of washed bauxite. The company secured another one-year recommendation last October to export 1.2 million wmt of low-grade nickel ore.

“Antam's exports of nickel and bauxite ore will support our mineral processing activities that have been running since 1974, in line with the operations of our FeNi I ferronickel plant [in Pomalaa, Southeast Sulawesi],” Antam president director Arie Prabowo Ariotedjo said in a press statement.

Antam exported a total 766,000 wmt of washed bauxite in 2017, contributing about 735 billion Indonesian rupees (US$51.45 million) to the government’s revenues and the company aims to produce and sale 1.6 million wmt of bauxite in 2018.

Indonesia allowed limited exports of nickel ore and bauxite and concentrates of other minerals in 2017 January after Southeast Asia’s biggest economy had faced a hefty budget deficit and missed its 2016 revenue target by $17.6 billion. The government now allows export for up to five years and limited to volumes decided by the government and independent inspectors and only on specific grades.