REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MUARA TEWEH -- Several coal mining companies in North Barito, Central Kalimantan province, have sold 3,250,736.288 metric tons of coal during the period between January and September 2014.

"These three million tons of coal were produced by the 13 investors that hold mining permits (IUP)," Aswadin Noor, the head of North Barito's Mining and Energy office, noted here on Wednesday.

He stated that the district's coal production has been plagued by transportation issues as it still relies on the Barito River.

The transportation of the mined coal is often stopped when the volume of the river water increases and crosses the normal level as a result of which the ships cannot pass under the KH Hasan Basri Bridge in Muara Taweh.

"The ships also get stuck in the Barito River when the water volume decreases," Aswadin remarked.

These natural constraints affect the transportation of coal on the Barito River. Besides this, the mining permission issue has also had an impact on the coal productivity.

"For the time being, some coal mining operations have to be stopped as they have not yet received permits from the Ministry of Forestry to conduct mining in the forests," Aswadin stated, hoping that the permission issues related to coal mining can soon be resolved so as to optimize the operations in the near future.

Although, there are some obstacles in carrying out mining operations, the coal sales during January-December 2013 reached 5,053,298.98 metric tons, which was an increase as compared to 3,919,385.99 metric tons recorded in the previous year.

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