PT PAM Mineral Tbk has aimed to increase its production target by expanding the exploration of its two mines. The company has targeted its nickel ore sales to 1.5 million tons in 2022, a slight increase from 1.3 million tons in 2021. The 1.5 million tons targeted sales consist of 900,000 tons of high grade nickel ore and 600,000 tons of low grade nickel ore.
To achieve the target, PAM Mineral has an estimated Capex of IDR4.5 billion, which is used to buy equipment or assets such as drilling machines, according to Finance Director Herman.
The company, which was established in 2008, owns two operational sites. One is in North Konawe, Southeast Sulawesi, with an area of 576 hectares that will operate for 20 years and another is in Morowali, Central Sulawesi, with an area of 198 hectares that will operate for 13 years.
The company and its subsidiary – PT Indrabakti Mustika (IBM) – currently have total resources of 16.09 million wet metric tons (WMT) and reserves of 8 million WMT.
PAM Mineral is focusing on domestic market with companies of PT Virtue Dragon, PT Indoferro, PT Sulawesi Mining Investment (Tsing Shan Group), PT OSS and PT Gunbuster Nickle Indonesia as their buyers.
To achieve the target, the company often faces obstacles such as weather (high rainfall), mining contractors, infrastructure, the blocking of PT PAM’s Main Hauling Road (MHR), different interpretations of benchmark prices (HPM), marketing and low-grade nickel ore prices.
Most of the nickel potential area in the company’s sites remain unmined. In the 198-hectare Morowali site, around 120 hectares are still not mined while in the 576-hectare North Konawe site, about 390.51 hectares are still not mined.
To overcome this, the company has short-term plans such as paying attention to capital expenses in 2022, carrying out drilling activities for the development of PAM Mineral resources and reserves, a production target of 570,000-855,000 tons/year, a sales plan of 570,000 tons of nickel ore in 2022 and a plan to sell 810,000 tons of nickel ore in 2023.
The company booked revenue of IDR98.1 billion in the first quarter of 2021 but it increased to IDR222.2 billion in the same period in 2022.
