Singapore's Penton cancels plans to develop Jambi coal mine

Singapore-based Penton International Limited has decided to withdraw from its investment in three coal mines located in Jambi as it faced difficulty to raise the funds required to invest in the coalmine infrastructure, the company said in a statement.

Penton has previously planned to further invest in infrastructure such as railways to transport the coal to ports for export to its customers but due consideration to the amount of funds required and the operational difficulties of the project it then decided to withdraw its interest from this coalmine project.

Penton said that it was currently in negotiation with the coal mine?s former owner to sell the shares in the coalmine project back to them.

Penton also said the coal mine project caused a loss of S$618,830 as at 31 December 2005.

In July 2005, Penton acquired 72.86 percent of the issued share capital of PT Suskes Lancar Sentosa (SLS), a company that owns 70 percent of the issued equity in three coal companies PT Anugerah Jambi Coalindo, PT Bakti Sarolangun Sejahtera and PT Sinar Anugerah Sukses, for US$3 million.

Penton has appointed UE China (Shanghai) Co Ltd to advise and assist it to develop the coal mine. Penton has also established UK-based subsidiary Jambi Coal Plc to develop the coal mine project.

Penton originally planned to produce up to 2 million tons of coal a year from the mine and to develop a new 100 MW power plant together with a potential partner from China. (Robert)