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AKARTA: Responding to the government ban on exporting unrefined coal starting 2014, the Indonesian Coal Mining Association (APBI) said two coal refineries would be set up in South Kalimantan and South Sumatra.

The association’s assistant executive director, Anim Lukman, said that after years of research and experiments, the first coal refinery could be built in 2012 in Tanah Bumbu, South Kalimantan, which was located inside coal firm PT Arutmin’s mining area.

“A demonstration plant was installed there years ago, but next year we will be ready to build the first commercial refinery in 2012. In South Kalimantan, the project may be started in 2014,” he told reporters after a discussion on Wednesday.

He said that the cost of refining 1 million tons of coal was US$150 million, adding that the research and development was a joint project between the Indonesian and Japanese government and started in 2001.

The upgraded brown coal process can increase the calorific value of coal from 4,500 kilocalories per kilogram to 6,100 kilocalories per kilogram.