AKT to produce 4.2 million of coking coal

By Cepi Setiadi

Indonesian coking coal producer PT Asmin Koalindo Tuhup (AKT) is expecting to produce up to 4.2 million tons of coal in 2012, AKT Market Director Ken Allan said.

"By next year the company will ramp up its prodoction to 5 million tons, in which AKT is also targeting to produce up to 10 million tons annually before 2016 and 15 million tons in 2018. So far AKT's coking coal are exported to Europe, Japan and others, while 44 percent of it goes to China,'' Allan said.

The company claimed that significant resource and reserve have been identified and quantified to date. More resource and reserve are realistically expected as exploration and drilling continues.

AKT?s output is premium hardcoking coal, which commands premium pricing with relatively low production costs, offering substantial margins to mitigate most market risk. A production ramp-up program to 5 mtpa has been completed, to be immediately followed by a further ramp-up to 10 mtpa, scheduled for completion by the end of 2013.

AKT originally obtained a Coal Contract of Work (CCOW) to develop a coal concession that spread across 40,610 hectares in Tuhup, located in the Murung Raya Regency in Central Kalimantan Province. The company relinquished 18,980 hectares of the North East Block concession area that were deemed to be economically unviable. This reduced the size of the company?s concession area to 21,630 hectares.

The current coal-mining project is commonly known as Tuhup Mine and is divided into two main blocks called Kohong and Telakon, the exploration and development of which covers around 1,500 hectares of concession area. The current mining area is concentrated on the 400 hectares at Kohong which is the most thoroughly explored area.

AKT was first established as PT Swabara Guna on Sept. 11, 1992, and changed its name to PT Asmin Koalindo Tuhup on Feb. 25 1998.

Editing by Er Audy Zandri