Two coal miners plan underground mining
Friday, February 6 2015 - 01:18 AM WIB
Bambang Tjahjono, Director of Coal Development and Management at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, was quoted as saying that the government supported the plan as underground mining creates relatively smaller environmental impact that open pit mining, the most common method applied by coal miners in Indonesia.
He added that the government was planning to provide incentives to promote undergrounding mining including a lower royalty (2 percent lower than open pit mining), and reduction in the size of divestment obligation to 30 percent from the 51 percent stipulated under the current regulation.
Merge Mining Industry is the local unit of China?s Merge Mining Holding Ltd, which operates a 971.2 ha concession in Banjar, South Kalimantan. The company is currently at the phase of construction work with investment plan of US$100 million. Production is expected to start in 2016, Kontan daily said.
The paper said that Gerbang Daya Mandiri is a local unit of Japan?s Mitsui Matsushima Co Ltd, which operates a 1,758 ha coal concession in Kutai Kertanegara, East Kalimantan. The company is also currently at the phase of construction of underground mining facilities with investment of US$73 million. Commercial production is projected to start in 2017 with capacity of 1 million tons per year. (*)