Growing coal miner eyes northern Asia

According to some forecasts, coal-producing giant China may have to start importing coal as rapid development and the growth of mid-level income earners in the industrial south raise demand for power generation.

Anticipating that development, Australian company Felix Resources Ltd is positioning itself to be an alternative supplier of coal to China, which currently gets most of its coal from its northern and Inner Mongolia regions.

"We are a competitive, expanding mid-tier company that has been supplying coal for many years to the power and the steel industries in the north Asian market, mainly Japan, South Korea, China's Taiwan province and to a lesser extent to the Chinese mainland and to India," said Managing Director Brian Flannery.

Felix Resources has implemented an ambitious plan to expand its export capacity of self-mined coal from 7.5 million tons to 20 million tons over the next five years.

Several of its mines are joint ventures with Japanese or South Korean companies, some of which are government-owned organizations.

Felix Resources' share of production is estimated to grow to 16 million tons in those joint ventures, which it manages and operates on behalf of its partners.

The company is also taking a share of new port facilities at its Gladstone and Newcastle port bases to support the expansion.

The company is also consolidating relationships with new customers from China to understand their needs and start forward planning.

"Our desire to build relationships is already happening and we would like to share the opportunity to be involved in some of our technical research into clean coal technology for the better and more efficient use of coal," shared Flannery.

"We are doing a lot of work in coal research and we are very passionate about making coal more efficient in its use," he added.

The company has made sizeable investments in Australia, both internally and in government-owned research laboratories, to find more efficient uses of coal to ultimately reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

It also contributes to the Australian coal industry's efforts to protect the environment. The Coal 21 Fund will invest in demonstration projects for carbon capture and storage.

www.felixresources.com.au

(China Daily 08/07/2008 page41)