PT Timah to increase coal production to 1.5 million tons

PT Timah expects to increase its coal production to between one million and 1.5 million tons next year from only about 750,000 tons this year, Investor Daily reported on Monday.

PT Timah's president director Thobrani Alwi said that the company which entered coal production only in recent years would develop a new mining area at its Tanjung Alam Jaya coal concession area.

"The increase in the coal production in the Tanjung Alam Jaya concession is expected to further raise the total coal production," he said, admitting that this year's coal production was relatively still too low because the company was still in the process of learning in coal production activities.

PT Timah sells all of its coal to Mitsubishi and LG Korea under a long-term contract.

Regarding its tin mining, its core business, PT Timah said that that it expected to increase tin production to 40,000 tons next year from about 35,000 tons in 2004. Thobrani said that the company's revenue from tin exports was expected to decline this year due to the drop in coal price from US$10,000 per ton to US$6,000 per ton during the last three months. (*)