Bhakti Coal to acquire 12 mining concessions

By Adianto P. Simamora

Coal miner Bakti Coal Resource, a unit of Indonesian listed diversified company PT Bhakti Investama Tbk said that to expand its coal business it would acquire 12 mining concessions in Kalimantan and Sumatra.

Of the planned acquisition of 12 mining concessions, the source said that 7 concessions would be located in Sumatra.

A senior official of the company said that the company would stop acquiring the low rank coal in anticipation of the government?s plan to ban the export of low rank coal by 2014.

?Our company strategy now is to overcome the planned ban (of low rank coal) in 2014. We look to expand more on high calorific value. We will stop acquiring the low rank coal,? the source said.

?One of the challenges in land acquisition is that most of our concessions are in palm oil plantation and they offer the high acquisition cost of Rp250 million per hectares,? the source said.

PT Bhakti Investama Tbk earlier said that its coal unit PT Bhakti Coal Resources (BCR) targeted to triple production from Sumatra and Kalimantan mines to 5 MTPA in 2012.

Editing by David Mustakim