Indonesia anti-graft agency summons BlackGold unit's senior exec for another interview

BLACKGOLD subsidiary PT Samantaka Batubara's president director Rudy Herlambang was called for a further round of interview by Indonesia's Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (KPK) or Corruption Eradication Commission, the coal mining company said late on Tuesday in its response to a query by the Singapore Exchange.

This follows BlackGold's earlier announcement on Sunday that three senior executives of BlackGold, including Mr Herlambang, have been called for interviews by KPK as witness to an investigation.

The other two employees are BlackGold's executive chairman and chief executive officer Philip Cecil Rickard, chief investment officer and executive director James Rijanto.

BlackGold said that there has been no outcome on the Riau-1 Project to date and that it is also not aware of any definitive decision by the consortium on whether to proceed or not.

The group also said that it has spent about S$1.6 million on the Riau-1 Project on licences, reports, land acquisition and professional fees and that this is a sunk cost.

BlackGold said that the Heads of Agreement (HOA) signed between the consortium members as announced on Sept 18, 2017 would have expired by Sept 14, 2018 and there is no negotiations to renew the HOA.

Following its lapse, the company does not expect to be expending further resources (financial or otherwise) on the Riau-1 Project.

The company does not intend to look for new consortium parties in relation to the Riau-1 Project until PLN (its partner in the consortium which has a majority stake in the project) and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources have come to a decision, said BlackGold.

But it maintained that the company remains keen on the project and will be awaiting PLN's decision before formulating any plans.