13 companies licensed to explore coal in Muba regency

At least 13 companies have so far been licensed by the government to explore coal in Musi Banyuasin (Muba) regency, South Sumatra but none of them have started commercial production, Sriwijaya Post reported on Friday.

President director of the local administration-owned company PT Petro Muba, Robert Heri said in the regency?s capital of Sekayu on Thursday that the licensed companies included PT Astaka Dodol, PT Bara Mutiara Prima, PT Duta Putra Tanrama, PT Mitra Jaya, PT Agung, PT General Sakti Kreasindo and PT Batu Rona Mulya.

Although all the companies were still in stage of exploration activities, several of them including PT Astaka Dodol, Batu Rona Mulya and Bara Mutiara Prima had shown a good progress. "The three companies are expected to be able to start their commercial production in the near future," he said.

According to Robert, the regency has coal reserve of about 3.5 million tons of various types of coal. (*)