10m tons of coal exported

JAKARTA (JP): PT Kaltim Prima Coal, a company owned equally by British Petroleum and CRA Limited of Australia, plans to increase coal exports by 15 percent to 10 million tons this year, a company executive said on Saturday.

The company's public relations manager, I Ketut Temadja, was quoted by Antara as saying in Sangatta, East Kalimantan, that the company's exports reached 8.7 million tons last year.

He said the company exports the coal, which contains 7,200 kilo calories per ton, to Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, the United States, South Korea, Malaysia and European countries.

Kaltim Prima Coal started commercial production in 1992 with an investment of US$570 million and has the rights to operate for 30 years.

Temadja said the company is currently developing a new coal mine in Bengalon in the same province, with a production capacity of around three million to four million tons a year.

He said that the operation of the Bengalon mine will increase Kaltim Prima Coal's annual production capacity to 14 million tons in 1996.

"We are now studying the feasibility of the mine," he added.

The company's production is approximately one-third of Indonesia's total coal output, while its exports contribute to about a half of the country's total coal exports, he said.

The company is the fourth biggest coal producer in the world after companies from South Africa, Australia and the United States, he added.(04)