Acquisition of a new mining permit for Tabalong expands the total project to 18,931 acres and allows production for 20 years with a 10-year extension option.
UJI has taken a 30% stake in the project in a non-cash deal and will fund its proportion of the surface mine development, which is projected to commence production in 2012.
Altura described the expansion of Tabalong and the establishment of a local partnership in Indonesia as key strategic targets for the company.
Most of the expansion portion of the tenement remains unexplored and there are no JORC-compliant resources calculated as yet.
In September 2011, Altura reported Tabalong’s JORC resource at 13.4 million tons of sub-bituminous coal.
The company is targeting production to begin this year at 500,000 tons per annum with a long-term plan to ramp up to 1.5Mtpa.
Tabalong is located in South Kalimantan province’s Tanjung formation which is noted for higher energy thermal and metallurgical coals.
