BHP Billiton to start work on C. Kalimantan coking coal project
Friday, November 4 2011 - 04:19 AM WIB
Joint-venture companies controlled by BHP and Indonesia's PT Adaro Energy will start building the Haju mine in the jungle around 220 kilometers northwest of Balikpapan port by the end of the year, BHP said.
Haju is the first stage of the IndoMet project in Central Kalimantan, which could be producing five million metric tonnes of coking coal annually by 2017. IndoMet is BHP's fifth-biggest coking coal resource.
"PT Lahai will construct a road and a mine (Haju) and related infrastructure, commencing, subject to approvals, in the fourth quarter of 2011," a BHP spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. This will be followed by investments in mines and infrastructure by PT Maruwai and PT Juloi, two other joint venture companies, she said.
IndoMet mine will produce 500,000 tons of coal annually by 2016, and five million tons the following year, according to a BHP presentation in September. Further expansion would target over 10 million tonnes of annual production.
Adaro, Indonesia's second-largest coal miner by output, bought a 25% stake in IndoMet in May 2010 for US$335 million, giving the project a total value of US$1.34 billion.
Earlier, an industrial source told Petromindo.Com that BHP Billiton through its Indonesian coal unit is expecting to start trial production in 2013 with production target of 1 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of coking coal.
The source said that it expects to start construction phase next year and commercial operation will take place by 2016. ?At the present, the project is going well and everything on schedule,? the source said without giving further details.
In July 2011, BHP announced that it is planning to carry out environmental impact assessment (EIA) on its Central Kalimantan coking coal project. (*)