United Coal Indonesia faces bankruptcy petition

The Central Jakarta Commercial Court began on Monday hearing a bankruptcy petition filed by two equipment suppliers of East Kalimantan-based coal miner PT United Coal Indonesia (UCI).

The suppliers including CV Satria Duta Perdana and CV Exsiss Jaya filed the petition because UCI has failed to pay maturing claims worth nearly Rp 220 million.

Plaintiffs? lawyer Bagus Wicaksono was quoted as saying that the petition was made also because the company has not paid the salaries of five workers at its Palaran mine for three consecutive months since June.

Meanwhile, the company has appealed to the court for a temporary freeze of the debt payment.

UCI, set up in 2006, is engaged in coal mining business in East Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan. One of its four mines is the 2,000-hectare Palaran mine in Sanga-Sanga, East Kalimantan, with estimated JORC reserves of 11 million tons. (*)