Straits Asia to buy two more Indonesian coal mining concessions

Singapore (ANTARA News) - Straits Asia Resources, a Singapore-listed coal mining subsidiary of Australia's Straits Resources, said late Thursday it has agreed to buy two more coal mining concessions near its coal mines on the Indonesian island of Sebuku.

The company said it is conducting due diligence and will pay 25 million US dollars once the due diligence is completed.

A further 114 million dollars will be paid once Indonesian government approvals have been secured, the company told Thomson Financial.

The two concessions are estimated to have coal reserves of 34-50 million tonnes, of which 4 million tonnes can be mined immediately.

"This acquisition offers further tremendous potential for growth of our business beyond our goal of 6 million tonnes production in 2009," said Straits Asia chief executive Richard Ong.

This is the second acquisition announced by Straits Asia in recent months. Last month, the company signed a memorandum of understanding on the purchase of a thermal coal mining operation in the Indonesian province of East Kalimantan.