Thiess eyes cooperation with coal concession holders

Mining contractor PT. Thiess Contractor Indonesia said it was looking for small-size coalmine concession holders to work with.

?We are looking to cooperate with coal concession holder with potential production of at least 100,000 tons per month and could be mined for at least five years,? said director Samel Rumende over the week-end.

Rumende said the cooperation would be beneficial for concession holders, as they would spend minimum capital expenditure since Thiess would undertake coal-mining activities for them.

?Another requirement that Thiess set for this kind of cooperation is that the mine has commecial coal quality and there are standby buyers for the coal produced,? he said.

?If one concession holder could not meet the volume requirement, it could cooperate with another concession holders which are located nearby,? he added.

Rumende said Thiess had actually struck this kind of deal to mine coal in Danau Mas Hitam?s concession in Bengkulu province, but the deal have to be put off since local government asked for 9 percent coal royalty, instead of normal rate of 7 percent, making the project infeasible.

Regency governments in East and South Kalimantan had issued hundreds of coal mining concession licenses to Indonesian business entities after regional autonomy law, which took effect in 2001, empowered them to do so.

Thiess is a subsidiary of Australian contractor giant Leighton Group.(alex/godang)