Minister unveils 2014 output target for minerals, coal

By Bernard Loebs

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Jero Wacik unveiled on Thursday during a hearing with the House of Representatives Commission VII overseeing the mining and energy sector the 2014 production target for the country?s coal and key minerals as follows.

Copper metal 640,000 tons, gold 87 tons, tin, 88,000 tons, nickel ores 3.5 million tons, bauxite 1 million tons, iron ores 7 million tons, and coal 397 million tons (302 million tons for export, and 95 million tons for domestic market).

He did not provide comparative figures. The Director General of Coal and Mineral R. Sukhyar late last year estimated the country?s coal production for 2013 at 421 million tons.

Meanwhile, mining industry players have recently forecast that the country?s nickel output would tumble by about 80 percent this year, and bauxite output by more than 90 percent following the introduction of the mineral ore export ban on January 12, 2014. Indonesia is the world?s largest exporter of nickel, and a major exporter of bauxite in Asia.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak