Jambi miners to build own road for coal transportation

Coal miners in Jambi is considering building their own road to transport their coal production after the local administration limited the transportation capacity of coal via public roads to only 24 tons per truck, Kontan reported on Wednesday.

Mirza Haviz, the head of the association of coal miners in the province, said in Jakarta on Tuesday that local miners planned to build a 220-km road from Sorolongun regency to Ujung Jabung to transport their coal production.

He said that the road construction would cost about Rp 6 trillion and would be funded by local coal mining companies.

The association said that the local administration?s recent decision to limit coal load capacity to only 24 tons per truck would severely affect coal production in the province, which normally produces between 4 million and 5 million tons of a year.

The local administration temporarily banned coal miners to transport coal via public road between November 1 to December 1, last year. After that period, the government limited truck load to only 24 tons per truck. Normally coal load is between 35 tons and 45 tons per truck.

Meanwhile coal producer PT Indonesia Coal Resources, a subsidiary of state-owned mining company PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (Antam) said recently that for the same reason it had failed to meet target to deliver 700,000 tons of coal last year. The company managed to realize delivery of only 590,000 tons in 2011, he said. (*)