Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – PT Sumbawa Timur Mining (PT STM) as the holder of the 7th generation Contract of Work (KK) in 1998 is still searching for gold reserves at the Onto mine, Hu’u District, Dompu Regency, West Nusa Tenggara. This means that for about 24 years the company is still conducting exploration activities.
President Director of STM, Bede Evans, explained that Onto’s mineral resource potential is part of the Hu’u Project owned by PT STM, which is the holder of the 7th generation Contract of Work. Especially the one signed by the Government of Indonesia on February 19, 1998.
STM’s shares are majority owned by Vale SA (80%), through Eastern Star Resources Pty Ltd, and the remainder by PT Antam Tbk (20%). “Currently our engineering team continues to develop various options on how the Hu’u Project can be developed into a mining project in the future,” he told CNBC Indonesia Friday (3/6/2022).
So according to him, it is too early for the company to provide information about when the Hu’u Project will enter the next stage. The reason is, all still have to pass various technical and economic studies.
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However, the company recently announced the results of the latest estimates of the potential of Onto’s copper and gold resources. As of December 2021, the company noted that this area has a total Indicated mineral resource potential of 1.1 billion tonnes (Mt) grading 0.96% Cu (Copper) and 0.58 g/t Au (Gold) and a total potential source of Inferred mineral strength of 1.0 Mt grading 0.7% copper and 0.4 g/t gold.
“As well as mine life and production estimates later, it’s still too early to predict,” he said.
As for the investment figures, his party cannot provide further information to the public because it is related to the company’s internal policies.
However, what is certain is that Evans previously revealed that since exploration began in 2010, this project has cost at least US$ 200 million. Meanwhile, for this year’s Work Plan and Budget (RKAB), the company has prepared funds of approximately US$ 80 million.
The Coordinator of the Mineral Resources Center for Coal and Geothermal Mineral Resources, the Geological Agency of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Moehammad Awaluddin previously did not deny the findings from the East Sumbawa Mining. The discovery of these gold resources is at the point of gold deposits, which modelically this type of deposit has a large enough opportunity for future resources.
“This allows the total potential of gold resources to reach 2 billion tons,” said Awaluddin.
Awaluddin said that the company might carry out underground mining activities to look for the presence of gold resources in the area. This is because the studies carried out so far are related to hydrology, geothermal and geotechnics to ensure mining operations.
Meanwhile, in the NTB area, referring to the Geological Agency data, other resources other than gold and copper are also recorded. These include silver, iron lead, manganese and iron sand.
“So NTB is indeed quite rich in terms of mining commodities,” he said.
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