Vol. 8 No. 01 (2005): INDONESIAN MINING JOURNAL Vol. 8 No. 1 February 2005

Our coverage this issue is focused on methane gas, coal, and mineral. The main issues in developing those commodities are to supply them in industries sector that is big enough, but most of them are imported due to their quality and specification are not fulfilled yet in our country.
Moreover, potentials of the commodities are not utilised optimally yet, non-conducive regulation for investment, export of raw materials, processing technology and engineering capabilities and no accurate data and information. These issues cause setbacks of the mining sector in obtaining the foreign exchange. This reality is an indication the presence of gap between the potential and the
technology (including the human resources); industry and research and development institutions and so forth. For this reason, this current edition is offering contributions to cope with those issues.
This current edition is trying to provide opportunities in developing the commodities from aspects of potential and processing technology and engineering. Several papers of potential aspect discuss the occurrence of methane gas seepages in Ketungau-West Kalimantan by Hermes
Panggabean; and the quality of the Ombilin coals based on their petrographic analysis by Binarko Santoso and Bukin Daulay. Issues on the processing technology and engineering include the upgrade of the Indonesian low rank coals by Datin Fatia Umar et al., the optimalisation of lubricant waste recycling with low rank coals by Nining Sudini Ningrum and Ika Monika; and finally synthesis of
Na-A zeolite by Sariman.
Although all the aspects are not discussed yet in this edition, we expect that some of the papers could be a golden bridge to cope with the gap faced by those commodities in this country, particularly between the industrial sectors and the research and development institution. Have a good time to read them.