Investments in Indonesia's mining sector beyond target: official

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JAKARTA, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- A senior official of Indonesian Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry said that the total investment in the country's mineral and coal mining sector in 2010 was 2.28 billion U.S. dollars, surpassing the ministry's target initially set at 2.119 billion U.S. dollars, local media reported here Thursday.

Bambang Setiawan, directorate general of mineral and coal at the ministry, said he was proud of the achievement and optimistic that the country could attain the 2011 investment target of 2.25 billion U.S. dollars, according to the Jakarta Post.

"To clarify, the investments came from mining contracts, which accounted for 1.48 billion dollars, coal contracts of work accounted for 764 million dollars and state-owned enterprises' mining concessions were the final 38 million dollars. Thus, the total is 2.28 billion dollars," he was quoted as saying.

Apart from those investments, the government also secured investments from mining service businesses totaling 904.82 million U.S. dollars, Bambang added. With that addition, the total investment in the mineral and coal sector reached 3.18 billion U.S. dollars.

"We also expect that coal production can reach 375 million tons, after only 275 million tons (this year)."

"That (3.18 billion U.S. dollars) doesn't include investment records from regional governments across the country, so the total may be even higher than that," he said.

The ministry is upbeat it can meet next year's target of 2.25 billion U.S. dollars in total investments, hoping to catch 1.29 billion U.S. dollars from mining contracts, 912 million U.S. dollars from contracts of work and 51 million U.S. dollars from state-owned enterprises' mining concessions.

"We raised the 2011 investment because we plan to increase mineral and coal production. If we want to increase production, we certainly need additional capital," he said earlier.

The ministry plans to increase production to catch up to the growing demand -- particularly in coal. In the next year, almost all mineral and coal commodities' productions are expected to climb.

The ministry said that tin production, which is projected to reach only 54,646 tons this year, will be cranked up to 95,000 tons in 2011. Bauxite is also among the commodities whose production will be raised, with expected production growth from 5. 15 million to 8.25 million metric tons.

"We also expect that coal production can reach 375 million tons, after only 275 million tons (this year)," Bambang said.

By the end of the year, the mining and coal sector is expected to contribute 56 trillion rupiah (about 6.2 billion U.S. dollars) to state revenues.

XINHUA/Investments in Indonesia's mining sector beyond target: official