Indonesia's Antam targets H2 2023 launch for ferronickel plant

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian state miner Aneka Tambang plans to start operations at its new ferronickel plant on the island of Halmahera in the second half of 2023, the company said, after years of delays due to power supply issues.

The company had initially planned to launch operations at the plant in East Halmahera in 2019.

Antam signed a deal with the state utility company in March last year to build a power plant and the first phase of power generation had been completed in December with a 15 megawatt capacity, Antam said in a statement on Tuesday.

The second phase of the power plant, with 75 MW capacity, is expected to be completed in the first quarter of this year.

"In line with the progress of the power procurement process and completion phase of plant construction, Haltim Ferronickel Plant can start to operate in the second semester of 2023," Dolok Robert Silaban, an Antam director, said in the statement.

The ferronickel plant has an annual capacity of 13,500 tonnes and would increase Antam's overall ferronickel production capacity to 40,500 tonnes per year.

(Reporting by Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by Ed Davies)