Troubled miner strives to develop its coal mine
Friday, June 24 2011 - 02:16 AM WIB
The company said in a statement that it was faced with problems ranging from high transportation costs, high rainfall, low capacity of jetty port. Furthermore, it is unable to sell its coal due to its high moisture content which reaches 55 percent. The company is using a drier to reduce the moisture content, but the effort did not help much.
Stll, the company will try to develop its mine by among others upgrading it haul roads and increasing the capacity of its jetty port from 800 tonnes per hour to 1,000 tonnes per hour. It also continues to seek a new coal mine with higher calorie and lower moisture contents.
GTB plans to produce 1.5-2 million tonnes of coal this year from nothing last year. According to the company, the mine produced 215,000 tonnes of coal in the February-April 2011 period, but sold no coal during the first quarter of this year.
GTB has bagged a two-year coal supply contract from a new buyer, Briskon Holdings Ltd, which has given it US$9 million in down payment, after cancelling a long-term supply contract with Dubai-based trader Oswal Overseas Ltd.
GBT said it had given back a down payment worth US$20 million to Oswal. The contract was called off as GTB was unable to optimize its coal drying machine.
GTB claims to have 95.4 million tonnes in mineable reserves and indicated reserve of 46.3 million tonnes in indicated reserves. After relinquishment, the coal mining area controlled by the firm has been reduced to 710 hectares from 1,995 hectares. It has obtained IUP transportation and sales license for five-year period, starting July 2008. (denny)