CMS signs MOU to explore Manganese Smelting Business

Thursday, 7 July 2011, Kuching – CMS is exploring an investment in manganese smelting at SCORE’s Samalaju Industrial Park. This evening, CMS announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Samalaju Industries Sdn Bhd (SISB) had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with OM Materials Singapore Pte Ltd (OMS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of OM Holdings Ltd, to enter into exclusive negotiations related to the development of a 600,000 metric tonne annual production capacity manganese and ferro silicon smelting plant at Samalaju, 60km from Bintulu. The project is estimated to be valued at USD450 million.

The manganese smelter will be under a new project company called OM Materials (Sarawak) Sdn Bhd (OM Sarawak) in which CMS will have 20% equity and OMS 80% equity.

OMS was incorporated in Singapore and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Australian-listed OM Holdings Limited. OMS operates a ferro alloy smelter and sinter plant in Qinzhou, China, and has marketing and distribution businesses in Asia and South Africa.

It is expected that definitive agreements will be reached between CMS and OMS by 30 July 2011 in order to ‘cement’ the joint-venture.