Under the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy initiatives, the construction of Malaysia's first manganese ferroalloy plant by Asia Minerals Limited at Samalaju Industrial Park will soon witness ground breaking activities in early March and is expected to be completed by May 2013.
In December 2011, AML obtained Detailed Environment Impact Assessment approval from the Department of Environmental and also agreed on the basic terms and conditions of Long Term Power Purchase Agreement with Sarawak Electricity Supply Cooperation.
Mr Yuki Nakamura corporate planning and business development general manager at AML told The Borneo Post that "We have resolved to invest between MYR 793 million and MYR 951 million for the first and second phase of ferroalloy complex project and will discuss with our JV partners for a third phase expansion."
He added that "AML estimates that it will require an additional MYR 314 million of investment for the third phase expansion, which is expected only to take place after 2015."
In line with the expansion, AML has also signed MoU with a number of big corporations from Japan, Korea and Malaysia. Through the MoU, AML stood to be the majority shareholder with 60% stake of the total investment, while the remaining were held by investors.
He explained that "Each of the companies have their own expertise and experience in steel and ferroalloy industries. They will act as product off takers and will also be involved in the management and production stage."
When asked to identify the companies involved, he stated that most of them were public listed companies. However, he said information would be released after February or March 2012.
On the manufacturing front, Mr Nakamura said AML would start ramping up the first phase production in June 2013 and by June 2014, it would be able to hold full production of 240,000 tonnes of manganese ferroalloy and ferrosilicon per annum.
Meanwhile, the second phase was scheduled to start in July 2014 and would be able to produce up to 95,000 tonnes per annum of ferrosilicon, silicon metal and electrolytic manganese metal by June 2015.
He revealed that "Given that, from 2015 onwards, AML will reach full production capacity for both the first and second phase with an estimated output of between 330,000 tonnes and 340,000 tonnes per annum."
AML was planning to produce a full range of ferroalloy and high value manganese products required for steel making such as silicomanganese, low carbon silicomanganese, medium and low carbon ferromanganese, silicon metal, ferrosilicon and electrolytic manganese metal.
To fully utilize the transport facilities in Sarawak, AML had on February 2011, signed a MoU with Bintulu Port Sdn Bhd (Bintulu Port) to further invest in the port, enabling it to receive big vessels such as handy max size of ships from the end of 2012.
(Sourced from www.theborneopost.com)
