Timah likely drops plan to acquire coal concessions

State tin miner PT. Timah Tbk. (Timah) may cancel plan to acquire two coal concessions in South and East Kalimantan as due diligence conducted by the company?s consultant showed discouraging results, an industry source said.

The main reason for Timah to drop acquisition plan was because of poor coal quality, said the source without further elaborating.

Timah, the world's largest tin producer, is planning to diversify activity to coal mining business.

Timah is also in posession of a coal mining area in East Kalimantan, PT. Timah Batubara Utama, which is also already at advanced exploration stage. But Timah would not likely develop the project in the near future as it was located far from transportation facilities and the construction of transportation infrastructure by Timah alone would be uneconomic.(alex/godang)