Investors given three months to negotiate with KPC

The government said on Monday it gave investors planning to purchase shares of East Kalimantan-based coal miner PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC) three months to complete their negotiations with company shareholders.

?Their negotiations must end in January 2003,? Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro told reporters.

Purnomo said the government would not meddle in the negotiations and that they were free to agree with KPC on share prices.

The government last Thursday formally named state coal miner PT Batubara Bukit Asam (PTBA) and two investors linked to the East Kalimantan provincial administrations and the East Kutai regency administration to buy a 51 percent stake in KPC. The East Kalimantan investors were PT Melati Bhakti Satya and PT Pertambangan dan Energi Kutai Timur.

PTBA was given the right to buy 20 percent of KPC shares, while the East Kalimantan investors were named to get the remaining 31 percent.

KPC, equally owned by world energy and mining giants BP Plc and Rio Tinto, operates a huge coalmine in Sangatta in East Kutai, East Kalimantan. (godang)