Jakarta (ANTARA) – Indonesia is entering a new phase as an industrial country through several infrastructure developments supporting the downstreaming of natural resources, President Joko Widodo stated.

The president made the statement while inaugurating the first bauxite injection facility of the smelter grade alumina refinery (SGAR) of PT Borneo Alumia Indonesia in Mempawah, West Kalimantan, on Tuesday.

“These are traces of industrialization, the beginning of industrialization in our country, Indonesia,” he noted in his remarks.

The head of state remarked that the traces of industrialization were marked by the operation of several smelter facilities in the country to process mineral ore into pure metal or metal alloys.

Apart from the Mempawah SGAR, Widodo highlighted that Indonesia had also begun operating the copper smelter belonging to PT Amman Mineral in Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara, worth Rp21 trillion (US$1.3 billion), on Monday (September 23).

The copper smelter is built on 272 hectares of land and is approximately 1.5 kilometers from Benete Port.

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The copper smelter has a processing capacity of 900 thousand tons of copper concentrate per year supplied from the Batu Hijau and Elang mines and processes 139 thousand tons of silica flux annually.

The president also inaugurated a smelter facility of PT Freeport Indonesia in Gresik, East Java, on Monday, with a total investment of Rp56 trillion (US$3.5 billion) and is expected to boost state revenues to Rp80 trillion (US$5 billion) from various sources, including dividends, royalties, regional taxes, and export taxes.

Today’s first bauxite injection of the first phase of the SGAR project, inaugurated by the president, has an alumina production capacity of up to 1 million tons per year, with an investment value of Rp16 trillion (US$1 billion).

The project will connect the supply chain between bauxite ore minerals in West Kalimantan produced by PT Aneka Tambang and Inalum’s aluminum smelter in Kuala Tanjung, North Sumatra.

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Translator: Andi Firdaus, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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