APBI suggests coal downstream clusters

The Indonesian Coal Mining Association, better known under its local abbreviation of APBI, said that it would be difficult for coal miners in the country to fulfill the government?s requirement to further process their coal output at home to generate greater value due to huge investment requirement to develop the downstream industry.

APBI Chairman Bob Kamandanu was quoted by Kontan daily as saying Tuesday that it would be difficult for each coal miners to build their own processing facility. ?We?ll be ready if the government applies a cluster system for coal processing,? he said.

According to him, there are currently 75 coal mining companies holding the so-called PKP2B coal contracts of work, and nearly 4,000 miners holding the IUP mining business licenses.

The government plans to require coal miners to process their coal output at home to generate greater value from the commodity. Under the revised Government Regulation No 23/2010, the coal miners can process the coal via various alternatives including coal blending, coal upgrading, coal briquetting, coal liquefaction, coal gasification, and coal water mixer. (*)