Kaltim Supacoal to start commercial operation in H2 2011
Tuesday, March 15 2011 - 01:56 AM WIB
?To date, these technical issues have limited overall production rates and have also had an impact on the energy increase achieved in the upgraded coal product,? the company said in its interim financial report released on Monday.
The company said that it expected to ramp-up to full commercial rates of production during the second half of 2011.
Since the end of June 2010, KSC has recorded a further 16,000 tonnes of upgraded coal sales to Bayan Resources, which was blended with Bayan's run of mine coal before being on-sold in the export market.
However, since October 2010 further sales have not been possible as KSC awaits formal licenses for the sale and export of its upgraded product as required under new Indonesian mining laws. The issue of these licenses is imminent, it said.
WEC and its partner Indonesia-listed coal mining group PT Bayan Resources have completed construction the 1 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) coal upgrading plant. WEC has 51 percent stake at the JV with Bayan takes the balance. The partnership is planning to increase the capacity to 5 MTPA.
KSC recommenced operations at the plant in early September 2010, following a shutdown period during which engineering modifications were carried out on the briquetter machine hoods to deal with the issue of dust in the upgraded product.
The feedstock coal is now being upgraded consistently from approximately 4,000-4,400 kcals/kg GAR to over 5,800 kcals/kg GAR. KSC has also managed to upgrade the product to over 6,000 kcals/kg GAR for shorter production runs, with a moisture level below 10%.
The next phase of operations is now focused on achieving high quality upgraded product with an energy value of approximately 6,100 kcals/kg GAR and with consistent moisture of around 8%, for sustained production runs, the company said in Nov 2010. (denny)