Having The Largest New Coal Reserves, PTBA Says It Can LAST Up To 100 Years

Coal (photo: dock. intermediate)

JAKARTA - PT Bukit Asam Tbk (PTBA) is known to be the company with the largest coal reserves in Indonesia. PTBA's Director of Finance and Risk Management, Farida Thamrin said, PTBA has a reserve of 3.02 billion tons which is a reserve that is downsized, while the overall reserve reaches 5.85 billion tons.

"This is the capacity of how many years? If the production is only 30 million productions per year, then this reserve can reach 100 years. But we don't want to reach 100 years," said Darida in a Public Expose Live 2023 which was held virtually, Monday, November 27.

For this reason, said Farida, his party has taken various strategic steps to accelerate coal products so that they do not have to mine for the next 100 years. This is also intended to reduce the impact of the decline in coal prices which can have an impact on the company's financial performance.

Farida said the PTBA mine has coal with calories that are very varied so that many buyers are interested in PTBA's Arabic products. For example, the production area in Tanjung Enim, South Sumatran has coal reserves with 4000 to 5400 kcal/kg calories.

For the Tanjung Enim Region itself, PTBA has 3 mining areas, including Tbang Air Laya which has coal with 4900-7000 kcal/kg calories with a total resource of 695 million tons and reserves of 387 million tons. The two Muara Tiga Besar with a calories of 4400-5000 kcal/kg with a total resources of 324 million tons d reserves of 178. The three Bankos with a calori 4,000-5,400 kcal/kg with a resource of 4/035 million tons and reserves of 2,170 million tons.

PTBA also has a stone reserve on the former mine land which has high calories. "We no longer produce this because of deep mines. If production needs a larger cost and while our reserves are quite large in South Sumatra," said Farida.

He further added, with the decline in commodity prices, Farida ensured that his party remained optimistic because the demand was still quite high in the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2023.

The total production of PTBA coal in the first 9 months of 2023 reached 31.9 million tons or grew 15 percent compared to the same period in 2022, which was 27.7 million tons.

The increase in production was in line with the increase in coal sales volume by 15 percent to 27.0 million tons. The company continues to increase the portion of exports in a measured manner without ignoring domestic needs.

Until the third quarter of 2023, the Company recorded export sales of 11.2 million tons, an increase of 24 percent compared to the same period the previous year. Meanwhile, the realization of the Domestic Market Obligation (DMO) was recorded at 51 percent.