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T Bumi Resources, Asia's largest thermal coal exporter, is setting aside an annual US$50 million budget for expansion and diversification into the development of non-coal mining activities.

Bumi senior vice president for investor relations Dileep Srivastava said the budget would be allocated to exploration for copper, gold and iron ore mining projects.

"Our current view is that copper, gold, iron ore are likely to add to the company's revenue around 2013," he said in an email on Friday.

He did not elaborate.

According to the company's 2008 annual report, aside from developing its coal assets, the company has already been expanding its business into other non-coal activities including iron ore, gold, copper, oil, gas, zinc and lead.

It has two exploration sites for iron ore mining projects in Mauritania, where Bumi controls 60 percent of participating interests.

Bumi owns also owns an 80 percent stake in PT Citra Palu Minerals, a gold mining company with six development sites in Central Sulawesi.

It also has a 100 percent stake in copper and gold mining company PT Gorontalo Minerals in the North of Sulawesi.

Bumi president director Ari Hudaya has said the company may need a total investment of up to $1 billion over the next few years to develop gold mining projects in Sulawesi.

Aside from gold projects, Bumi also has an 84.2 percent stake in Herald Resources, which owns a zinc and lead mining project in North Sumatra - with one the largest zinc and lead reserves in the world (about 14 million tons).

Dileep said the company expected the Herald project would start producing by 2011.

"We will need about $160 to $170 million to ramp up to production stage - it's fast track, and takes 24 months from receipt of forestry permit."

Bumi took over the 84.2 percent of Herald in January 2008 at a price of $2.85 a share through its special purpose vehicle for the takeover, Calipso Investment Pte. Ltd.

Meanwhile gold mines in Palu and Gorontalo were purchased from Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, respectively in 2005.

Taking into account the large investment needed to develop these non-coal mining projects, Ari said that the company was considering partnerships with other companies.

He said that a number of investors from South Africa, China and Australia had showed interest in joining the partnership.

However, Ari refused to name the potential investors.

Aside from those projects, Bumi operational director Kenneth P. Farrel said recently the company was also looking at diamond and phosphate projects in Liberia.

He said the company had not yet worked out how much investment was needed for these projects, as it would depend on size of reserves.

He added it could take billions of dollars to develop big reserves and only millions of dollars for modest reserves.

For oil and gas, the company is now studying two oil and gas blocks in Yemen.