Kopex to start exploration on Bayan?s Wahana underground mining

PT. Kopex Mining Contractor, an Indonesian unit of world?s leading underground mining group KOPEX has said that it would start feasibility study at Bayan Resources? coal unit PT Wahana Baratama Mining (WBM) in South Kalimantan next year.

The official said that at present, the underground mining within WBM area is still in conceptual study and it will start exploration activity in October this year. ?If everything is okay, we will start construction in 2013 or 2014,? he said, adding that the underground mine is expected to produce around 2 million tonnes of coal per annum.

In a 2007 Pre-FS report, Kopex said WBM has 52.5 million tonnes of non-JORC reserves at an area of 566 hectares which can potentially be developed into underground mining operations.

In September last year, IDX-listed coal mining group PT Bayan Reources has appointed PT. Kopex Mining Contractor to study the feasibility of undergound mining within the WBM mine site.(denny)