Coal India looks at coal assets in Indonesia

State run miner Coal India Ltd (CIL) is looking at acquiring coal assets in Indonesia, a company official said on Wednesday.

"We are in touch with government companies there (Indonesia) to see whether we can get access to coal assets. We are looking at assets in Saarc (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) and in other areas," said company's Chairman Sutirtha Bhattachrya.

He also said that the miner is "looking at coking coal assets in Australia, but not much progress has happened there".

Speaking on the surrender of licences in Mozambique, he said, "licenses have been surrendered and they have been accepted. We have requested the Government of Mozambique to give an alternative area."

The coal behemoth had submitted its application to the National Institute of Mines of Mozambique for complete surrender of prospecting licences which were awarded to its wholly-own subsidiary Coal India Africana Limitada (CIAL) as mining would be "technically not feasible" in the licence areas.

"A mineability study has been undertaken based on the findings of the geological report. The findings of the mineability study revealed that it is technically not feasible to do mining in the licence areas of CIAL. Accordingly, CIL board accorded its approval for surrender of prospecting licences ... to the Government of Mozambique."

"Pursuant to this decision, applications for complete surrender of prospecting licences have been submitted to the National Institute of Mines (Instituto Nacional de Minas), Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy, Government of Mozambique," the company's latest annual report said.

Bhattacharya said the miner will sign a MoU with South African exploration Mining & Finance Corporation, SOC Ltd., (AEMFC), an entity owned by the Government of South Africa for identification, acquisition, exploration, development and operation of "high calorific value coal assets" in the African country.

--IANS

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