Arutmin to boost coal production to meet domestic demand

South Kalimantan coal miner PT. Arutmin Indonesia is set to increase output to 25 million tonnes per annum starting 2010 from around 16 MTPA currently to anticipate increasing domestic demand, a company official said.

The company?s Vice President Director Kaz Tanaka told Petromindo.Com on a sideline of a conference in Bali on Monday that increase would come from its Asam-Asam mine and the incremental production would be dedicated to the 10MTPA contract it had signed recently with PLN to feed the latter?s proposed mega power project that will become onstream in 2009-2010. State electricity firm PLN is currently in the process of tendering development of 10,000MW of coal-fired power plants across the country to anticipating the country?s surging electricity needs.

Arutmin operates several mines in its concession; namely Satui, Senakin and Asam-Asam. The company has currently production capacity of 16MTPA, 15MTPA of ahich goes to export market.

Tanaka said that Arutmin will peg its export to 15 MTPA over the next few years. ?Arutmin will not boosting export beyond 15MTPA,? he said without further elaborating.

Arutmin is a subsidiary of JSX-listed coal mining house PT.Bumi Resources. (alex)