PT Amman Mineral Internasional Tbk (AMMN) is boosting the completion of its copper smelter project. The smelter, located in West Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara, is being worked on by AMMN's subsidiary, PT Amman Mineral Industri (AMIN).

President Director of Amman Mineral Industri, Rachmat Makkasau explained that the progress of AMMN's copper smelter has reached 95.5% from the verification results as of May 31, 2024. This progress indicates that the AMMN smelter project has reached the completion of physical and mechanical construction. 

The remaining 4.5% is the commissioning stage which is currently underway. The commissioning stage has started since June 1. Rachmat emphasized that the progress of the AMMN copper smelter is going according to plan.

“We have received a Certificate of Commissioning Readiness from an independent verifier. It indicates that Amman's copper smelter has met all requirements for safe commissioning,” Rachmat said on Tuesday (16/7).

The commissioning phase is scheduled to last for four to five months. During this stage, the smelter furnace will begin to heat up and copper concentrate will begin to be fed into the smelter.

The first copper cathode production signaling the start of smelter operations is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2024.

Previously, commissioning of supporting infrastructure has been carried out since the first quarter of 2024. For example, the desalination and demineralization water (DDW) supply facility and the oxygen and nitrogen gas supply facility of the air separation unit. 

AMMN's copper smelter facility has a total input capacity of 900 kilo tons per annum (ktpa) of concentrate from the Batu Hijau mine and the future Elang mine. The products of this smelter will be copper cathode which reaches 222 ktpa and sulfuric acid which reaches 830 ktpa.

AMMN is indeed aggressively working on its projects. This year, AMMN has prepared a jumbo capital expenditure. The value is US$ 2.01 billion or around Rp 31.7 trillion in 2024. Recently, AMMN was also rumored to be looking for a large loan worth US$ 1.5 billion to develop its copper and gold mines.

In terms of stock movements, AMMN's share price has climbed 71.37% since the beginning of the year or year to date. But in yesterday's stock trading, AMMN fell 3.02% to IDR 11,225 per share.