Indonesia to review coal mining licences

Nusa Dua, Indonesia

INDONESIA will push for consolidation in its mining sector while coal prices are low and may soon revoke more than 4,000 licences that have caused problems, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said said on Monday.

Indonesia ships about US$2 billion of coal a month and is the world's top exporter of thermal coal, but it wants to keep more of the fuel to feed ballooning domestic power demand. At the same time, it wants to squeeze more revenue from the sector.

"At the end of the day it's about equilibrium," Mr Said told a coal conference in Bali, noting Indonesia had issued around 10,100 of the newer mining licences known as IUPs. "We enjoyed huge profits that were abnormal. Abnormal money drives abnormal behaviour," Mr Said said, referring to the commo…