At site

We are readying for coming production.
The vessel needs a new cutter to cut through the kaolin table where the tin ore are below the table.
The previous set up of jet spray suction did penetrated to some extent, but we need to extent the pipe, and also add the cutter in.
So men will be coming in, and also to put up the working cutter.

We should be working on our new dredgers, and to finalise the separation concept, whether to conduct it at sea or to do it on land. This will be the future strategy for our production and possible vertical integration concept to be implement in future.

Tin and sand

This sells for USD 10,000 per ton and it's about 65% pure, compared to sea sand, which is USD 6 per ton onsite, it is a world of difference.

Its one of the reason why we are shifting from Sand to Tin.

Why Indo China activities we on the wane, and our alternative work areas are picking up.

It is difficult to pull out, but, now that the direction is clear, it just don't make sense to continue under those situations where alternative supply is imminent, even though we had invested substantial facilities there.

Tin is the new economy for us. For now, sand activities will be taking a back seat.

Mining woes

You know whats the most depressing thing about mining operations?
You are the ones who invested in the equipment, in the concession and the personnel, ends up merely a subcontractor, while some connection savvy middle man gets the deal.
Ya right, at the height of the need for sea sand, we were constantly hounded for increasing production load, being efficient oriented, we invested in relevant equipment, trainings and set up.

Yes, our men were trained and disciplined, and we have lecturers coming in from recognised institutions to update on operations, and also to brief on environment care.
But all these come to nought at the end of the day when the contracts were opened to open tender, it may be the best way to source for the lowest price, but lowest price always comes with their set of baggages and problems.
So at the end of the day, the transhipment operators get the deals by pushing the price to ridiculously low level.
The End Buyer may think that they get a good market feel, the price hardly can justify the sand sourcing, concession payout and operation in Cambodia. Furthermore, for reclamation, it is hardly justified to insist on coarse sand with fine sand dumped under proper contained area compacts easily and provide a firm base.
Its not a case of sour grapes here, here we are one of the most efficient operators of the sea sand dredging, with a host of set up, dry docks, safety trainings, discipline enforcement and track records, have to resort to pick up depressed sub contract for the supply of sea sand by some main contractor who managed to secure the tender.

The demand for sea sand is so great and operators like us will surely be an asset to the end buyer, but why can't we secure the contract? Its the price.
The price tendered is almost 50% lower than the end buyer paid previously, and imagine, new transshipment  players in the mix! They bid a low price to secure the contract, and then turn around to press the price of the miners like us to supply knowing we are out of contract.
We all know the price is not sustainable, coming from Indonchina to the end user, the shipping fee already a hefty sum, but then they with contracts are vessel owners, getting their vessels to work is already not losing money, thats why after almost 11 months of stoppage, they will go at any price.
For us the woes are clear and present, settle for a price only at operational cost, and risk our equipment wear and tear for what?
Thats why we are looking beyond the horizon.
We refused to submit to this kind of arm wrangling, currently where we are, we are the only source that can export sea sand without local restrictions, the end buyer can do to have an alternate source like what we have there, but we already started looking beyond.
We are specialist alluvial dredging team, we also are efficient in conveyor belt transport system, there are opportunities in the region for us to expand ourselves, we long know we should not put all our eggs in one basket.

Recovered Blog entries

I just posted some of the recovered blog entries I managed to salvage.
The very earlier ones were still untraceable, I guess the chances of recovery is bleak.
What I have, I already reposted with the dates inserted accordingly.
There are a number of posts without dates, so generically I gave them a block date from that period.
Alot of old photos were not replaceable, I tried to substitute with newer ones, I hope this is acceptable.
I will continue to blog as the work progress, hopefully experiences learned will be experiences shared.
Thanks for reading.

Coal Mine Trip Jan 12 2011

We were invited back to Kalimantan to tour the Coal Mine sites.
the purpose of the visit is in the negotiation of the transhipment business.
We were accorded full VISITOR's status, ie: guided and full board for the visit.
We have unrestrained access and were accorded planning details, procedural and operations information.
Rounding off the trip, we saw the loading sites, the loading equipment, see the different calories of coal available from the sites. We also understood the calories plan where they load and blend the coal in different hatches on the mother vessels.

Cold Coal deal Dec 12 2010

I recently witnessed a Coal Deal gone cold.
F, one of our earlier casual contact had hooked up my Singapore associates and managed to persuade them to give him a deal.
They struck a deal for a certain amount of money, and F name dropped us to secure the transferable LC from a Chinese buyer arranged by a Singaporean broker.
The money came in, and for almost 2 weeks, it was not touched.
They buyer's bank contacted the Singaporean broker G and made query, G flew over to Jakarta and asked F who said that he will make payment soon as there was some festival on going.
F then made another LC payment minus a sizeable amount, and G was informed.
G went again to check what happened, and the consequence was long stake out, LC drawn and needed to be refinanced, and even the buyers themselves spent almost a month before finally abandon the deal.
F had tried to flip the LC in local terms, he struck a deal with one seller, and then tried to buy another batch to double flip the LC. He retained the profit before he made the payment, and unpredictably as the nature of mining went, delivery hiccups, quality and even local problems made it impossible to deliver even the original deal on time.
It was messy, and sellers and buyers came to his house in Jakarta during which his liaisons with girls he brought to the location in Pekanbaru and other parts of Kalimantan were exposed to his family as he desperately tried to arrange financers to back him up and tried to cover his double dealings to the buyers who did not get their required goods and angry sellers who had made the commitment and demanding progressive payments.
In the end, the coal deal turned cold.
The buyer and sellers met separately and worked out some solutions between themselves.
The brokers, F and G and others in the line, were chopped and discredited.
All for nothing and a lot of mess.

Featured us Aug 31 2010

I was pretty busy lately, now theres some news to update.
We were featured in the latest Global Witness Report on the Sand industry in Indochina.
We were pretty quiet until then, low profile just doing what we can legally so long as the law of the place provided. Well, it seems there is a political agenda on the report, mainly it is about the practice of awarding the contracts and concessions in the place.
There were also talks about sand ban in the area and that the operators were dredging even under a ban.
That is not entirely correct, we were there, we know it.
The Sand ban earlier was to save the environment, before the Ban, there were indiscriminate dredging all over the place, pristine diving spots and islands were dredged destroying marine habitat and messing up the dive spots, we NEVER do such things.
Then the PM banned the industry from export, he reopened it a few months later allowing only dredging in renewable sources, ie; in rivers where the wet seasons will wash down sand and silt and cause flood and sand banks, those are the areas we operated.
In a way we were singled out due to our efficiency, but that was all, we had illegal miners foraying into no entry area, small less equipped, they have to dredge near the shore to get the sand, with no regards whatsoever to the environment.
We exercise more care when we operate, our equipments can go deeper, so we stay away from habitat, also focus more on sand banks thats obstructing waterways.
It is now all quiet for many months already as we await new tender to begin our operation, this stoppage is damaging as we are owners of the assets instead of hiring someone else to do the job.
That is why, with the experience we will not be putting all our eggs in the basket, time to diversify, we have been active the last few months, pretty soon you will see our additional activities.