White Energy prepares for final upgrade works at Tabang

Australia-listed coal upgrading firm White Energy Company reported on Friday that its 51 percent-owned subsidiary PT Kaltim Supacoal is in the process of completing a number of engineering modifications to its binderless coal briquette plant at Tabang, East Kalimantan.

With the recent successful upgrade to the coal drying column at the Tabang plant now operational and enabling the pre-briquetting moisture content of the coal to be reduced from approximately 35% to the targeted 6%-7%, materials and equipment are currently being prepared for the next plant shutdown, the company said.

Unusually low levels of water in the Belayan River, a major tributary of the Mahakam River which is the main access route to the Tabang site, have delayed the barging of construction equipment and fabricated items of equipment to site. In addition, the local contractor fabricating the pipework for the dust collection system is behind schedule, it added.

?The planned September 2011 plant shutdown will proceed and substantial work will be completed once water levels in the river allow the barges to reach the Tabang site. A further shutdown will be required in November 2011 to finalise the dust collection pipework at the briquette machines and to complete the tie in for the new conveyor and cooling tower.

The modifications to the drying column have been successful and management is confident the new dust collection system, once completed in November, will enable the briquette machines and plant to operate at design production capacity (of 1 MTPA).? (alex)