Altura updates Indonesian coal project
Tuesday, April 30 2013 - 10:44 AM WIB
DELTA COAL MINE (East Kalimantan) Thermal Coal (33⅓% AJM)
In February 2013, Altura Mining Limited completed the acquisition of a one-third interest in the Delta operating coal mine in the established mining province of East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Production and sales for the quarter are as follows:
| ? | March Quarter 2013
Tonnes |
| Saleable coal production (100% terms) | 261,287 |
| Coal sold (100% terms) | 345,591 |
| Saleable coal production (Altura 33⅓% share) | 87,096 |
| Coal sold (Altura 33⅓% share) | 115,197 |
During the quarter, predicted seasonal rain resulted in lower production from the mine. Rain delays are scheduled for the higher rainfall months from November to April. During Q1 2013 the mine experienced 53 rainfall days for a total of 752 millimetres of rain. Altura management is working with Delta Coal mine management to ensure that production from the mine achieves its forecast production of 1.5 million tonnes during calendar 2013.
The mine produced almost 1.5 million tonnes in 2012, however plans are in place to lift production and sales to 2.0 million tonnes per annum by 2015. The increase in production will be achieved by both mining contractors increasing their respective mining fleets with no additional capital required from Delta Coal to fund the increased output. Current activities are focussed on the completion of an estimate for both Coal Resources and Mining Reserves in accordance with the revised JORC code 2012 edition.
The coal currently produced and sold is a highly desirable medium energy thermal coal with product specifications as follows:
Calorific Value (kcal / kg) 5,500 ? 5,700 (adb)
Calorific Value (kcal / kg) 4,800 ? 5,000 (gar)
Total Moisture (%) 26 ? 28 (gar)
Ash (%) 4 ? 8 (gar)
Total Sulphur (%) 0.5 ? 1.0 (gar)
TABALONG COAL JOINT VENTURE (South Kalimantan ? Indonesia) - 70% AJM
During the quarter, discussions continued with the Ministry of Forestry in an endeavour to obtain the Exploitation Forestry Permits (Pinjam Pakai) that will allow mining to commence at Tabalong. Altura has been pursuing these approvals for the past 12 months. The complications continue to be related to overlapping production forest tenements, restrictions on the size of allowable mining areas within each forestry tenement and conflicting forestry boundaries between local and central government departments.
During 2010 part of the tenements held by PT Suryaraya Permata Khatulistiwa (SPK) and PT Suryaraya Cahaya Cemerlang (SCC) was relinquished in order to excise any protected forestry areas. This conditional relinquishment was required in order to upgrade both tenements to Operation Production status with this approval granted in October 2011.
Subsequent to the upgrade of the tenements the boundaries (as issued by the Department of Forestry) have been moved approximately 1 kilometre to the south-east, and this appears to be the result of a datum shift within the Department of Forestry database. The overall effect of the forestry boundary shift places sections of the intended mining area within a ?buffer zone? imposed the department.
Altura has conducted extensive field surveys supported by aerial photography in order to support its case to the Department of Forestry. The correction of this error is seen by the company as one of the final pre-requisites to complete the forestry permitting process. Altura expects the Forestry Permits to be issued in accordance with the applications however the exact timing for the issue of the permits is uncertain.
Upon receipt of approvals it is estimated that a lead time of less than 6 months will be required for the first coal production. Initial coal production will be at a rate of 500,000 tonnes per annum(tpa) ramping up to 1,500,000 tpa.
The initial mining development will commence in SPK, the most northern IUP, and then progress south into SCC and potentially east to PT Suryaraya Pusaka (SP) as coal resources are defined. Coal will be mined from SPK and hauled some 110 kilometres to a port site on the Barito River, where it will be loaded on barges and transported down the Barito River to an offshore anchorage point for vessel loading.
Use of 55 kilometres of a third party haul road, crushing plant and barge loading facility remains the chosen method and is currently being negotiated. Successful completion of these negotiations will substantially reduce start up capital and development lead time but will not be concluded until a start up date is confirmed.
During the remainder of 2013 there will be a focus by the company in evaluating the recently acquired tenements held by PT Kodio Multicom (KM) and PT Marangkayu Bara Makarti (MBM) along with the eastern tenement of SP. The focus of the evaluation will be to produce a JORC compliant resource estimate of these three (3) tenements in order to evaluate the overall mining potential of the expanded Tabalong project. (end of edited excerpt)