State-owned diversified miner PT Aneka Tambang (Antam) is seeking partners for the development of a processing plant to convert bauxite into smelter grade alumina (SGA).

Antam president director Tato Miraza said the company sought a maximum of two partners for the project, which will be located in Mempawah, West Kalimantan.

“We seek partners to hold around 30 to 35 percent ownership in the project,” Tato said.

According to Tato, Antam is currently assessing a number of bidders or investors from various countries, such as China, Russia, Japan, the United States and some others from the Middle East.

The SGA plant is expected to have an annual production capacity of 1.2 million metric tons of alumina. Antam has finalized feasibility studies for the project and is expecting to kick off plant construction by the end of 2014 or early 2015 at the latest. The plant’s commissioning date is scheduled for 2017.

Total investment is estimated at US$1.4 billion to $1.5 billion. Tato said the estimated spending, as determined by the feasibility studies, was lower than a previous assessment of $1.8 billion to $1.9 billion, making the project more economic and competitive.

“The spending is quite huge. We need partners to share the risk. We won’t force ourselves to do the project on our own because we have three ongoing projects,” Tato said.

The company is currently developing a chemical grade alumina project in Tayan, West Kalimantan. The project, which costs $490 million and is supported by financing from Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and a consortium of Japanese banks, will have a production capacity of 300,000 tons of chemical grade alumina.

Antam has reached 95.3 percent of engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) progress for the plant, which is expected to become operational this October.

The company is also expanding its ferronickel plant in Pomalaa, Southeast Sulawesi. The expansion project, which is being developed gradually in eight packages, is worth $573 million in investment.

The Pomalaa project had reached around 26 percent of EPC as of July. Antam is expecting to fully commence all operations in the second quarter of 2015.

Antam is developing another ferronickel project in East Halmahera, North Maluku. The project, which will entail the construction of power plants, needs $1.6 billion in investment. Plant construction and infrastructure development will be kicked off later this year.

The East Halmahera ferronickel plant will have a production capacity of 27,000 tons of nickel (TNi) per annum and is scheduled to become operational by 2015.

Finance director Djaja Tambunan has said the company has prepared funding for the Pomalaa expansion and the East Halmahera ferronickel plant. The Pomalaa expansion is funded by internal cash and the company’s bonds. Antam sold Rp 3 trillion ($292 million) in debt papers in 2011 and still has the opportunity to sell another Rp 1 trillion ($97 million), which will be released this year if the company sees a favorable market.

For the East Halmahera ferronickel plant, Antam has obtained commitments from export credit agencies from Finland and Denmark, in addition to the usage of internal cash and bank loans.

“We will adjust the pace of the East Halmahera project development so that we are not drained as cash flows are affected by declining commodity prices,” Tato said.