One orebody, one way out: the 54 km link
Elang is the growth project of PT Amman Mineral Internasional, operator of the Batu Hijau copper-gold mine on Indonesia's Sumbawa Island. Amman's JORC statement puts Elang's ore reserves at 2,526 Mt grading 0.32% copper and 0.33 g/t gold, and the company describes Elang as one of the world's largest undeveloped copper-gold orebodies. The development plan does not build a second processing hub: Elang will use Batu Hijau's processing plants, power facilities, smelter and the Benete port. That choice makes one asset the project's enabler. Ore will be hauled from the Elang coarse ore stockpile to the Batu Hijau plants on a 54 km overland conveyor (OLC), with the primary access road extended alongside it. At this distance and tonnage, trucks are not the fallback option; the conveyor system is, in effect, the project.
Programme numbers, not yet a specification
The only system-level numbers in public are a length and a capacity, and they come from the project's consultant rather than from an owner's equipment specification. Grant Graber of GMG Management, engaged on the system since March 2025, told International Mining the conveyor will be 55 km long - 66 km in total including existing conveyors - with a capacity of 18,000 t/h, calling it one of the largest and most complex conveyor projects ever to be undertaken. Buyers should read those figures as programme scale, not as a purchasable specification: Amman has not published a belt width, a belt rating, a drive arrangement, a flight split or a package list for the Elang OLC. The gap matters, because at this scale the belting, drive and idler volumes implied by a single system sit in the same league as the largest operating overland installations, and choices such as belt class, drive architecture and transfer count will move life-of-mine operating cost more than any single equipment discount.
Procurement that starts years before the FID
What makes Elang unusual is not only its size but its buying timetable. The 2025 feasibility study is complete, yet Amman's own timeline puts the final investment decision in 2027 and first production in 2032/33 - and the conveyor procurement is already staffed. GMG Management acts as Principal Consultant Specialist, in Graber's words leading the early engineering, supplier engagement and execution of the Elang OLC. His published description of the consultancy's conveyor work lists the tasks being applied: optimisation of design configurations, scope development, contract format, technical reviews, supplier engagement, and selecting the right field of suppliers for the specific project. In other words, the contract format and the supplier field for one of the largest conveyor purchases of the decade are being designed years before any package is tendered - a deliberate contrast with projects that fix the design first and meet the market afterwards.
A scope that is still moving
Early engagement is not the same as a frozen scope, and Amman says so itself. Its company profile records that, with the feasibility study finalised, revisions and an optimization study are ongoing, including relocation of the primary crushing station on geotechnical advice, redesign of the sediment control ponds and the access road to cut construction cost, and waste dump optimisation. The crushing end of the conveyor is therefore still moving: the plan includes semi-mobile primary crushers, so that in-pit crushing and conveying can follow the pit as it deepens. The extended access road is specified to double as the construction and maintenance corridor for the OLC and its high-voltage transmission line, which means corridor, crusher position and conveyor interfaces are being settled together. For suppliers, the practical reading is that interfaces discussed today may be re-based before the FID, and that the value of the current phase lies in being part of the technical conversation while those interfaces are set.
The running reference at Batu Hijau
Suppliers do not have to guess how Amman builds conveyors, because a smaller version of the same pattern is under construction at Batu Hijau itself. The mine's existing OLC is fed by two gyratory crushers and supplies the SAG mill stockpile. The current expansion, which lifts processing capacity from 35 Mt/y to 85 Mt/y, adds a new 5 km overland conveyor rated at about 14,000 t/h, now in an advanced stage of construction: its trestles, bents and ground modules were fabricated by FLS (formerly TK Mining) through a third-party engineering group in China, and Innomotics is supplying gearless drive units. That combination - owner-led integration, internationally fabricated modular steelwork, gearless drives at five-figure hourly capacity - is the most concrete public evidence of the delivery model the Elang system is likely to be procured under, and it is a reference any serious bidder will be measured against.
What to watch before packages appear
Until packages are published, the honest specification sheet for the Elang OLC is a list of open items: belt width and rating, drive architecture and count, flight and transfer arrangement, fabrication geography, and the split between system supply and component packages. The milestones to watch are the ones Amman has already printed - the 2027 final investment decision, and any move from preliminary engineering to named equipment packages before it. Buyers tracking this project should also keep it separate from two neighbouring stories: the electrification trend covered elsewhere in this journal, which concerns component choices on systems already being built, and other Asia-Pacific project pipelines whose conveyor disclosure is thinner still. Elang's distinction is that its procurement organisation is already visible. For belting, drive and idler suppliers, the commercial contest for this system will be substantially shaped by who is in the technical room before the tender documents exist.
Manufacturer announcements and our analysis are distinguished. Product claims require verification for the specific application.
Sources
PT Amman Mineral Internasional Tbk, Company Profile, May 2026 ↗Owner's published profile, opened in full for this article. Source for Elang's JORC reserves (2,526 Mt at 0.32% Cu and 0.33 g/t Au, as of 31 Dec 2024), the completed 2025 feasibility study, the 54 km overland conveyor from the Elang coarse ore stockpile to the Batu Hijau plants, the access road's dual logistics and conveyor maintenance role, and the ongoing revision items including relocation of the primary crushing station.
PT Amman Mineral Internasional Tbk, Company Profile, September 2026 (H1 2026) ↗Owner's H1 2026 profile, opened in full for this article. Source for the project timeline used here: Elang final investment decision in 2027 and first production in 2032/33, Elang described as a Super Giant deposit roughly 50 km from Batu Hijau, and Batu Hijau processing capacity expanded to 85 Mt per annum in 2026.
International Mining, February 2026 - GMG Management on optimising conveyor projects ↗Interview with GMG Management's Grant Graber. Source for GMG's engagement since March 2025 as Principal Consultant Specialist leading the early engineering, supplier engagement and execution of the Elang overland conveyor; for his figures of 55 km length, 66 km in total including existing conveyors and 18,000 t/h capacity - attributed in this article to the consultant, not to an Amman equipment specification - and for the listed scope of the consultancy's conveyor project work.
International Mining, February 2026 - Amman gears up for expansion (Batu Hijau) ↗Trade-press report quoting Amman's first-nine-months 2025 statement. Source for the Batu Hijau processing expansion from 35 Mt/y to 85 Mt/y, the existing overland conveyor fed by two gyratory crushers supplying the SAG mill stockpile, the expansion scope including a new overland conveyor, primary crushing station and coarse ore stockpile and reclaim, and Amman's wording that feasibility revisions and optimisation remain ongoing.
International Mining, February 2026 - Amman's new overland conveyor at Batu Hijau ↗Same feature, preceding page. Sole source used for the expansion conveyor details: a new 5 km overland conveyor of about 14,000 t/h in an advanced stage of construction, with trestles, bents and ground modules fabricated by FLS (formerly TK Mining) via a third-party engineering group in China, and gearless drive units supplied by Innomotics. Reported as the magazine's account; not independently confirmed with the two suppliers for this article.
