Indonesia launches $941 million smelter-grade alumina refinery

JAKARTA : Indonesia's President Joko Widodo launched a $941 million smelter-grade alumina refinery run by state miner Aneka Tambang (Antam) and state-owned aluminium producer Inalum in the country's West Kalimantan province on Tuesday.

The production capacity of the refinery is 1 million metric tons of alumina per year, which would absorb 3.3 million tons input of bauxite.

The companies are planning to expand the plant's production capacity by another 1 million tons and build an aluminium plant to further process the alumina output, according to Hendi Prio Santoso, chief executive of MIND ID, parent company of both Inalum and Antam.

"The domestic aluminium needs is 1.2 million tons, 56 per cent are imported while we have the raw material. When these are all completed, we can stop the import," Jokowi, as the president is known, said in his remarks.