In a bid to help meet growing demand for gas in the country, state coal miner Bukit Asam (PTBA) plans to build two coal gasification plants and explore coalbeds for methane, a top company executive said. -- Excerpt from The Jakarta Globe.

Coal bed methane and gas are two "commodities" which are likely to be a hit in a future to replace crude oil and coal due to massive production and reserves depletion. I think Bukit Asam is on the right track to diversify its business, but the big question would be if it's the right time. We'll see.

Investors keen to reap the benefits of Mongolia’s untapped mineral riches have shifted their focus from copper and gold to coal, with energy-hungry neighbor China as a key customer. -- Excerpt from The Jakarta Globe.

I have friends (let me call them friend) out there in northern part of Mongolia, starting up coal mining operation in an extreme weather condition, which is called MoEnCo. They told me that they have to build around 1,000 km road to mobilize their equipments. That's major infrastructure development, I must say. I told them that they're not just starting up a company but developing their country. And, they didn't even know what corporate social responsibility is.

Coal and mining projects with a combined value of $14 billion could be hit by a forest moratorium that would make it harder for them to obtain land-use permits. -- Excerpt from The Jakarta Globe.

Environment is, no doubt, at stake, but still you won't be able to develop your future without energy. Clean energy is indeed our future, but like it or not coal is still our main resources to feed the human's hunger for energy.

The race for ownership of one the world's biggest gold producers, PT Freeport Indonesia, is heating up as the government finally gave a formal nod to state firms to take part in the competition.

It's not energy, but worth great attention.

The government has threatened to revoke the business licenses of coal-mining firms operating without environmental impact analysis documents (Amdal) in Kalimantan to avert further environmental damage.

Threatened? Do we live in a jungle? Why can't government exercise the law or any regulation on this matter?

Article 8 of the implementing decree of Mining Law, states that the mining concession holder is prohibited from using affiliated companies for any service work unless it gets approval from the Energy Ministry.

It's not about price any longer, it's cost transfer that should be detailed. However, in my opinion, there should not be any problem by using affiliated company if the Company maintain relatively reasonable range of cost.

The implementation regulations, covering mining areas, coal and mineral businesses, mining supervision, reclamation and postmining issues, are expected to provide legal certainty and boost investors’ confidence in developing the country’s mining and geothermal reserves,

Though Y09 investment realization is 20% behind the schedule, government eyes an increasing in mining investment. However, I think that most of Y10 investment will be from current mining company that eyes production increase in Y10.

Gold for February delivery jumped to a record $1,227.50 before settling up $5.30 at $1,218.30 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

A good sign to re-mapping the low grade for additional potential reserves?

The Indonesian Mining Association fears mining investment could fall below $1 billion this year due to uncertainty over the new law, although the government has said investment from mining, including geothermal, could surpass $2 billion.

New Mining Law was signed on September by former Mining and Energy minister, Purnomo Yusgiantoro, which limits the use of contract mining to specific tasks. The regulation applies immediately to new mining project while existing mining company shall have three years period for adjustment.

The application of new mining law to existing mining company, IMO, will increase the need for huge, and I mean extra huge, capex especially within these three years period. There will be, at least, requirements of (1) capex to acquire new mining equipments to increase the production, and (2) capex to acquire mining equipments as replacement to contractor's equipments.

Hiring new people with good competency will also become a great challenge. Other than the increasing of cost, the challenge lies in the organization structure complexity. Imagine moving contractor's organization into the existing organization of mining companies. This will reduce the organization flexibility to adapt to changes in mining industry. Furthermore, this is somehow out of step with global trends. Mining companies globally are seeking ways to effectively slim down the organization.

How do we overcome the challenges and anticipated to changes?

To this matter, there are several strategic objectives that must be done to anticipate the changes, that will emphasize on (1) improve the organization development and human resources development, (2) enhance online collaboration as IT base function, (3) business process improvement, (4) increase customer delight, and (5) economic value added improvement.

Improve the organization development and human resources development. The elaboration of the organization culture actually lies within the organization vision. However, vision is not enough. Key to the success of organization development is the ability to translate the vision into operational terms through out the organization and act upon it. Along the way of developing the organization, human resources development shall also be developed. At minimum, I propose three stages implementation, which are recruitment and fulfill the organization requirement - from top to bottom, increase competency level and mitigate the effect of competency gap, and retain the best people. One stage can be added during five years to the end of the life of mine project that is selling the expertise of the best people.

Enhance online collaboration as IT base function. I truly believe that the IT key issue in the following years is to enable people to collaborate to manage single task or single project. Cross-function, cross-platform, and different time zone are challenges that people have to deal during the course of the project - this is where a collaboration tools is required and to be managed as the IT base function.

Business process improvement. The strategic initiatives are increase the production volume and reduce the cost.

Increase customer delight. Delight is beyond satisfaction. The key is to be able to predict the need of customers even before they realize that they need something.

Economic value added improvement. Two things only: prudent investment and manage cost and risk.