Jade raises fund to quickly develop W. Sumatra coal mine

Singapore firm Jade Technologies Holdings Ltd announced on Friday it had raised S$9.63 million through private placement of 133.75 million of ordinary shares.

The company said it intended to use at least $5.4million of the proceed for its Mt. Galugua coking coal mining project in West Sumatra with the balance to be used for working capital and further investment in coal mining business.

The company said it would build necessary infrastructure and purchase equipment to enable the project to deliver first offtake of 15,000-30,000 tonnes of coking coal in the third quarter of the year.

The company said it has already completed exploratory surveys, obtained various regulatory permits pertaining to environment, sales and transportation and set upa base camp on site. An experienced team of professional and technicalpersonnel is also on site to direct the mining operations, which will be outsourced to a local sub-contractor, it said.

Under the mining service and offtake agreements with concession owner PT. Dasacita Pusaka Prima, Jade is expected to receive approximately 70% of the aggregate profits from the overall transactions, it said.

Dasacita has right to explore and exploit the mining concession for 30 years and is in the process of expanding these rights to allow it to further develop, exploit and export coal from the mining concession of up to 7,000 hectares.(alex)