PTBA finds 230 million tons of new coal reserves

PTBA finds 230 million tons of new coal reserves

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

State owned coal miner PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam (PTBA) has
discovered more than 230 million tons of coal reserves in South
Sumatra's East Kungkilan area.

The publicly-listed company said on Friday that the discovery
raised its total coal reserves by 3 percent to 7.3 billion tons
from 7.1 billion tons.

"With the new find, our company has a greater leverage to
increase coal exports," PTBA president Ismeth Harmaini said in
Jakarta.

Currently, the company produces an average of about 10 million
tons of coal per year. Part of the output is exported, while the
remainder is sold at home, including to state electricity company
PLN.

Data on coal exports was not available.

Ismeth said it was currently expanding its export market to
include Malaysia and Spain which, respectively, need one and two
million tons of coal per year.

Japan is one of the world's biggest importers of coal,
importing 120 million tons each year.

Ismeth said Indonesia exported 18 million tons of coal each
year to Japan, of which some 300,000 tons were supplied by PTBA.
"Japan offers huge opportunities for coal exports," said Ismeth.

Meanwhile, Wimpie S. Tjetjep, the director general for geology
and mineral resources at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral
Resources, said the new find was made possible by technical
assistance given by the Japan-based New Energy and Industrial
Technology Development Organization (NEDO).

The assistance was made available through a grant by the
Japanese government. "The grant is not binding," said Wimpie.

However, an official at the ministry has said that Japan was
interested in assisting PTBA find more coal reserves, to ensure a
sufficient supply of coal to Japan.

After the new finding, PTBA and NEDO will explore more fields
that are suspected of having coal reserves, especially in the
Bunian Sukamerindu field in South Sumatra.

From a preliminary survey, it has been learned that the field
might have some 100 million tons of coal reserves.