(The Insider Stories) – Shareholders of state-owned mining company PT Aneka Tambang (IDX:ANTM) have picked Tato Miraza as president director (CEO) to oversee its expansion plans, replacing Alwinsyah Lubis.

Miraza joined Antam in 1992 and held several key posts, eventually becoming development director in 2008, a position he held until his promotion this week.

Tato aims to keep Antam’s existing business plan in place, increasing production and value of reserves and accelerating development and completion of projects like the East Halmahera FeNi ferronickel development in North Maluku province, the Pomalaa ferronickel project in Southeast Sulawesi and the Tayan Chemical Grade Alumina project in West Kalimantan, all of which are in construction with Tayanset to be commissioned in October and the other two projects commissioning before the end of next year.

East Halmahera FeNi has an expected project cost of $1.6 billion, including a power plant, with production capacity forecast at 27,000 metric tons a year of nickel contained in ferronickel, while the modernization of the company’s Pomalaa ferronickel smelters, including constructing a coalfired power plant, is expected to cost $450-$500 million. Tayan will require estimated investment of $450 million to produce a planned 300,000 tons a year of chemical grade alumina.

Gold is main revenue driver

Antam targets an increase in gold output to 3 tons this year from 2.8 tons last year, with gold contributing almost half of company revenue, while nickel sales will fall slightly to 18,000 tons from around 18,400 tons. Iron ore sales are expected to be 11.5 million tons, up from 8.04 million tons.

The company is preparing IDR5 trillion in capex as it continues its expansion plans.

Outgoing CEO ends 30-year career at Antam

Miraza has been at Antam for more than 20 years, joining the company after receiving a degree in metallurgical engineering from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) in 1991. He holds a Masters in management from Prasetiya Mulia Business School and was appointed assistant senior manager of ferronickel in 2005 before becoming project group leader of the company’s nickel and energy development project in 2006.

Lubis ends a 30-year career at Antam, joining the company in 1983 after graduating from ITB with a chemical engineering degree. He gained a Masters of management from Prasetiya Mulia in 2002 and was appointed deputy head of Antam’s nickel mining business unit in 2002, becoming head of the unit in 2003 and then holding the title of operations director between 2003 and 2008.

Antam was created from a merger of several commodity companies in 1968 and listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 1997. It gained a full listing on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2002 after listing as a foreign entity in 1999.