Reuters cited Mr Loebis a senior executive of Antam as saying that Indonesian state owned miner, PT Aneka Tambang Tbk expects to complete its coal mine acquisitions this year and sees a jump of more than a third in gold output in 2010.

Antam's coal consumption is due to increase significantly with the completion of a new power plant near its nickel mine in Pomalaa, on Sulawesi Island. Last year, it announced plans to acquire coal mines to help meet that demand.

Mr Loebis said that "We are now in the due diligence process for five coal mines in Kalimantan, we cannot state the names yet." He did not elaborate on how many of those mines the firm would acquire.

Antam, in which the state has a 65% stake, uses about 200 000 tonnes of coal a year in its ferronickel smelters but annual consumption may rise to 2 million tonnes once the new power plant is completed.

He said that Antam would increase gold production to about 3,8 tonnes to 4 tonnes by 2010 from about 2.8 tonnes in 2009, as its recently acquired Cibaliung gold project in Banten province will start operating by 2010.

Mr Loebis said that "Next year, the Cibaliung project will start to operate mid year and we expect an additional one tonne, so the output is expected to be about 3.8 tonne to 4 tonnes by 2010."

On February 10, Antam announced that it had signed an agreement with ANZ Bank and Australian firm Arc Exploration Limited to arrange for the transfer of ownership of PT Cibaliung Sumber Daya, which operates Cibaliung gold project.

The Cibaliung gold project has a mine life of 6 years with annual ore production of 220 000 tonnes and production of gold equivalent of around 2.2 tonnes. It had estimated gold reserves of around 12.8 tonnes or 412 000 ounces.

Antam, which has a stock market value of USD 1.77 billion, is involved in the exploration and production of nickel ore, bauxite and iron sands as well as smelting of ferro nickel, exploration and production and refining gold and silver.

(Sourced from Reuters)