Re-zoning of Forestry Areas in South Kalimantan

The government decree for South Kalimantan includes a significant area within Straits Asia’s Sebuku coal concession that was previously restricted from mining. That land has now been re-zoned as production forest and is therefore available for mining.

With this change Straits Asia is now in a position to execute its plans to recover valuable coal production from this area. The expected timeline to production, including the finalisation of standard permits for mining operations, is approximately 9 months.

The main re-zoned area at Sebuku  is directly adjacent to the North of the current mining operations in the Tanah Putih pit. Coal seams with a cumulative thickness of approximately 12m have been identified along almost the entire strike length of the re-zoned area, highlighting the continuity and extent of the coal basin within Straits Asia’s concession area. Ground conditions are mostly similar to those covering Tanah Putih, being low-lying and swampy and the stripping ratio is unlikely to show much change from the average figure of approximately 4:1 achieved in the past at Sebuku.

Straits Asia will shortly commence the fieldwork programmes and detailed drilling of the rezonedarea in order to develop an updated mining plan for the operation. The results of this work, including further resource and reserve numbers, will be announced in due course.

Commenting on the news Richard Ong, CEO of Straits Asia said, “The re-zoning effectively unlocks the door to the next stage of Sebuku’s development, confirming the operation as one ofthe lowest cost, high quality thermal producers in the region.”