(Yicai) Aug. 12 -- China Nonferrous Metal Industry's Foreign Engineering and Construction, a major engineering contractor also known as NFC, said a local unit has secured a USD429 million contract to expand a copper ore processing project in Indonesia.

The unit signed the engineering, procurement, and construction contract with Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara, its Beijing-based parent company said today. It will take 16 and a half months to buy and install the necessary equipment.

Amman Mineral Nusa’s sister company Amman Mineral Industri is building a new smelting plant on Sumbawa island in Indonesia’s West Nusa Tenggara province that can process 900,000 tons of copper concentrate a year. Amman Mineral Nusa owns and operates Batu Hijau, the second-largest copper-gold mine in the country.

NFC and Amman Mineral Industri signed a USD554 million smelting equipment supply contract and a USD354 million smelter design and engineering construction contract in December 2021.

NFC mainly provides engineering contract services for non-ferrous metal mining and processing projects in central and northern Asia, Southeast Asia, central and southern Africa, and other regions. The firm had revenue of CNY4 billion (USD550 million) from the business last year, accounting for 43 percent of its total income, according to NFC’s annual financial report.

Shares of NFC [SHE: 000758] closed 0.9 percent lower at CNY4.57 (64 US cents) apiece in Shenzhen today. The stock has gained 1.6 percent since the end of last year.

Editor: Martin Kadiev