State miner Timah (TINS) builds two smelters with total investment of around US$100 million. First smelter located in Ausmelt is under construction (starting last year), expected to commence operation in 2021. The new smelter will be built in Nigeria. Timah has planned to invest billion of dollars in Nigerian mineral and mining sector.
Timah Finance Director Emil Ermindra said the Company’s alluvial reserves are running low so it needs to go into the deep mine. Timah said the smelter project in Ausmelt is funded by bank loan and bond. It has issued bond worth Rp1.3 trillion in July 2019, and will explore refinancing cooperation with the Finnish credit agency, Finnvera. Timah hopes to produce 45,000 MT tins from Ausmelt smelter.
The company also plans to build a smelter in Nigeria as part of the company’ expansion and secure new tin ore reserves. Timah has signed a Joint Venture Agreement (JV) with Topwide Ventures Limited to explore and manage the exploration, mining, processing and refining, transportation, sales and marketing of tin and mineral derivatives that exist in the African Continent. The smelter in Nigeria will have a capacity of around 5,000 Mt with an investment of around US$20 million.
