Altura continues to seek partner to develop S. Kalimantan coal project

By Romel S. Gurky

Australian-listed Altura Mining Limited said it is continuing to seek suitable potential partners for the development of Tabalong coal project in South Kalimantan.

The company is hoping that a successful conclusion to this process can be achieved in the near future.

The company has said that during the fourth quarter of last year, it has obtained IUP Operation Production for both mining permits (IUPs) that comprise the Tabalong coal project. The receipt of these approvals now paves the way for Altura to seek forestry land use permits required for mine commencement, which is the key remaining permit required to allow coal mining to proceed.

The Tabalong coal project is planned to commence in this year, subject to receipt of the land-use permit with an initial production rate of 400,000 tons per annum (tpa) of premium grade thermal coal with the plan to ramp up to 750,000tpa. Current plans are for a surface mine with the product delivered to an off-take point to the west of the Barito River.

Further exploration is planned for previously unexplored areas of the Tabalong tenements. Current activities are limited to field mapping and observations until the Forestry Permits have been received. During the last quarter several new coal outcrops were located in the eastern portion of the tenements. The Altura Indonesia exploration team has prepared a detailed geological plan that will be tested by drilling in 2012. The location of these new coal seams has the potential to provide additional coal resources to the project.

Tabalong has a JORC compliant coal resource estimate of 13.4 million tons comprising of a measured resource of 4 million tons, an indicated resource of 5.8 million tons and a further 3.6 million tons of inferred resource. The deposit contains sub-bituminous coal of low ash (4.8%), low sulphur (0.98%; measured resource), high energy (6,349kcal/kg; as received basis) .

Editing by Denny H. Tarigan