BHP Billiton caps output at Haju mine

OREANDA-NEWS. July 29, 2015.UK-Australian resources firm BHP Billiton has no plans to extend production beyond the current target of 1mn t/yr for the Haju coking coal mine in Indonesia's Kalimantan.

The start-up of the Haju mine during the current 2015-16 fiscal year ending 30 June comes after seven years of uncertainty for the project. BHP Billiton said in 2008 it would develop Haju but abandoned the project a year later. It then indicated production could reach 2mn t/yr.

Haju coal will be hauled along a 90km road to a river port on the Barito river to be barged to an export terminal.

Haju is one of seven coal contract of work projects that are part of the Maruwai coking coal projects, also known as the IndoMet project and the Indonesian Coal Project. All seven coal deposits are located in central and eastern Kalimantan. The company in 2008 carried out a feasibility study for the development of a 3mn-5mn t/yr coking coal mine at Lampunut in the same region as Haju.

The IndoMet plans do not include mining in any protected forest areas, BHP Billiton said, with the majority of its coal leases overlapping with areas where logging is presently licensed by the government.

BHP Billiton in 2010 sold a 25pc stake in Maruwai to Indonesian coal mining firm Adaro, leaving BHP with the remaining 75pc. Maruwai is one of the few undeveloped coking coal-rich deposits in the world, but if production were to be scaled up it may require significant investment in rail and port infrastructure.