Pesona develops supporting facilities for coal upgrading plant

Coal miner PT Pesona Khatulistiwa Nusantara (PKN) is currently in the process of developing supporting facilities such as power plant and conveyor to realize a planned coal upgrading plant in East Kalimantan, Kontan reported on Monday.

The paper quoted PKN President Director Jeffrey Mulyono as saying that the company hopes the 7.5 MW coal-fired power plant and conveyor facility integrated with its mines in Bulugan Regency would be completed in March of next year.

PKN operates a 21,875 hectares coal concession in Bulungan, with much of the coal reserves classified as low rank coal with calorific value of 3,200 kcal/kg.

The company is teaming up with investors from China and Australia to build a coal upgrading plant, which will require the supply of 1.2 million tons of coal to produce 700,000 tons per year of higher calorie coal with CV of 5,000 kcal per kg.

Jeffrey said that the investment requirement for the power plant is US$13 million, while for the conveyor is $15 million. The investment requirement for the coal upgrading plant will be covered by the Chinese and Australian investors. (*)