Reliance Power Ltd,Anil Ambani’s Group firm has acquired a 100-per cent stake in three Indonesian coal mines, with total reserves of two billion metric tonnes, for which it will pay on the volume of production the mines yield. Over the next eight to ten years it expects to invest around $1 billion on developing the mines and setting up logistics facilities. The acquisition was made by Reliance Coal Resources Private Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Power Limited, the company said in a regulatory filing. Reliance Power can mine up to 40 million tonnes per annum of coal from the three companies-Srivijaya Bintangtiga Energy, Bryayan Bintangtiga Energy and Sugico Pendragon Energy – which are located in the South Sumatra area of Indonesia spread over an area of 40,000 hectares nd plans to supply coal from these mines to its 4,000-MW ultra mega power project at Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and also to the Shahapur power project in Maharashtra.
The financial terms of the transaction has not yet disclosed by the company but the payment for the acquisition is linked to the actual production of coal. To increase the capacity of these mines to over 25 million tonnes per annum, Reliance Coal Resources plans to invest Rs2,400 crore in mine and related transportation infrastructure. And because its a captive coal mine, the coal suplly will not be affected by price fluctuations, the company said. Reliance Power, on its own and through subsidiaries, is currently developing 13 medium and large sized power projects with a combined capacity of 28,200 MW in the country. These include projects in western India (12,220 MW), northern India (9,080 MW) and northeastern India (2,900 MW) and southern India (4,000 MW). Six of them are coal-fired projects (14,620 MW) – to be fueled by reliance.