Asiamet has announced it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China Nonferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering and Construction Co Ltd (China NFC), a subsidiary of China Nonferrous Metal Mining (Group) Co Ltd for value engineering and Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management (EPCM) Services for the BKM heap leach and SX-EW copper project located in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. BKM is part of the wider KSK project that includes Beruang Kanan Zinc.

“China NFC is a market leading Chinese contracting group with an internationally recognised capability, having successfully completed many mine developments across the Middle East, Central and North Asia, Central and South Africa, and neighbouring countries. These implementation capabilities in nonferrous metal industry projects cover a wide range from technical assistance, technical consultancy, equipment manufacturing and supply to project management, project implementation and financing. Of particular relevance to Asiamet, China NFC together with its Indonesian partners is currently building the Dairi zinc mine in North Sumatra, Indonesia and actively working to expand its presence in the country.”

As part of the proposed engagement with Asiamet, China NFC will undertake a detailed evaluation of the technical and financial aspects of the BKM copper project and propose a series of solutions to the Company with respect to the value engineering and EPCM components of the proposed BKM mine development. Utilising a China and local Indonesian-Southeast Asian sourcing strategy is expected to lower some of the BFS capital cost inputs and enhance overall project economics. The potential to access China NFC’s strong linkage’s with Chinese capital providers and project and equipment financiers will be explored in detail as part of this engagement.

Asiamet intends to work with China NFC to further enhance the value of the BKM copper project through the provision of services in the following key areas:

• Engineering and Design, including value engineering, front-end engineering design, development of schedules, budgets and work packages for major plant and equipment capital items, facilities arrangement
• Procurement, including establishing tender process and tender documents, managing supplier interface
• Construction, including management of contractors for construction phase, reporting and commissioning of work packages; and
• Project Management, including potential sources of project finance.