Gold Mining Only Able To Produce 1 Ton A Year, Antam Performs Buyback To Import

JAKARTA - President Director of PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (ANTM) Achmad Ardianto admitted that he had difficulty finding Indonesia's gold supply.

The reason is, the Pongkor gold mine is currently only able to produce 1 ton of gold per year. Meanwhile, the demand for gold in the community reaches 40 tons per year.

"The problem is that Antam's mine, which is currently the only one in Pongkor, only produces 1 ton a year. Only 1 ton a year, while last year's needs were 37 tons, now 43 tons," he said in a Hearing Meeting with Commission VI of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Monday, September 29.

To meet the meal, Didi, Ardianto's nickname, said that his party has standards to meet his needs.

First, Antam carried out a buyback mechanism.

Thus, the gold that had previously been purchased by customers was then repurchased for then reprinted.

"That's a source for us to print with a new version. It's only 2.5 tons a year, so we're still a lot of shortage," he explained.

Antam's next step is to buy gold from domestic mines that carry out purification at Antam's factory

"Well, the problem is that there are no rules that require them to sell to Antam. So it becomes flexibility for mining companies in Indonesia to sell them domestically or export," said Didi.

Nevertheless, Didi admitted, Antam still had to do a bargaining mechanism with other gold companies.

The reason is, the majority of the mining companies choose to export gold rather than sell it to Antam because it will be subject to tax burdens.

"Well, there is also a tax element here that makes mining companies more flexible for them to export than by selling them to Antam," he explained.

It didn't stop there, other gold companies also asked Antam to impose a bundling scheme.

In this case, Antam was asked to buy silver products because the company admitted that it was difficult to sell silver if Antam had bought gold.

"With this bundling, there are taxes that appear there, 13 percent VAT which is difficult for them and for Antam of course," added Didi.

For this reason, Antam then took the last option, namely by importing gold from abroad.

"Where did Antam import it? From all companies or institutions affiliated with LBMA. So we don't want Pak to import from always affiliated companies. There are three sirs, bullion banks, refinery, or traders," explained Didi.

On the same occasion Didi also denied that Antam had exported gold.

According to him, Antam has never exported gold.

Gold export activities, he said, were carried out by other companies, apart from Antam.

"So those who export gold are companies in Indonesia," he said.