Marubeni funds RI coal

Marubeni funds RI coal

TOKYO (Reuter): Marubeni Corp and Sumitomo Corp said yesterday they would provide US$100 million for Indonesia's P.T. Indominco Mandiri's coal mine project in Kalimantan.

A statement said each of the Japanese companies would provide $35 million in 10-year loan and acquire $15 million worth of convertible bonds of the Indonesian firm. An official at Sumitomo declined to give further details.

The money would be used for a $140 million project at the Bontang mine, in eastern Borneo, which started shipping coal earlier this month and should raise its annual output to 3.6 million tons by 1999, it said.

Its reserves are estimated at one billion tons.

The project, which started at the end of 1995, includes building a port for shipping coal, it said.