Vol. 10 No. 3 (2007): INDONESIAN MINING JOURNAL Vol. 10 No. 3 October 2007

The main topic of this October 2007 issue relates to coal and mineral technology. For the coal issue, the dependence upon the only energy source like oil fuel must be reduced by utilising an alternative energy that is coal. Moreover, the reserve of the Indonesian oil fuel is decreasing day by day, and this condition is worsened by no new oil resources discovered. Probably, it cannot be avoided that Indonesia will be net importer of oil fuel in the future. For this reason, the Indonesian coal having huge resources mainly located in Sumatera and Kalimantan must be developed to replace the role of oil fuel as a new energy source. Several attempts have been carried out to improve quality of the coal in cooperation with overseas R&D institution from Japan. For the mineral issue, in the current years industrial minerals indicate the recovery of their buried condi- tion. This is shown by the demand increase of various industrial minerals, and thus the mining operation of these commodities reveals its increase, either for fulfilment of the domestic demand or for the export purpose. The improvement of value added of them needs to be focused so that they can optimally be used.

The papers are arranged into the coal and mineral issues. The coal issues are as follows: Two coalfields have petrographically been compared between Ombilin and Bayah. The type of both coals illustrates some similarities. The ranks of the coals are commonly considered to be controlled by the level of temperature of the intrusive rocks; Coal water mixture (CWM) is required to have the highest possible coal concentration and a moderate viscosity to make handling easily; The most influential intrusion to the development of the coal maturity is the Bukit Asam intrusive, while Bukit Serilo shows negative result, presumably is very young and thus, the age could not be de- tected by K/Ar method; The mineral issues are the followings: Geology and geomorphology of the hinterland and the bordering adjacent marine environments control the diversity of coastal fea- tures. The coastal characteristics of iron sand deposits in Indonesia are always associated with volcanic rocks; The phillipsite mineral as one of the members of Natural Zeolite Group was firstly discovered in the Indian Ocean during the MD III-IM-AGES IV Expedition at the depth of 3,884 m below sea level; Treatment on clay as ceramic raw material by draining and firing process at high temperature will denature both physical and chemical properties like the properties of dwindling, mechanical strength and growth of quartz to become new mineral of tridymite.

The problems of the development of the mineral and coal technology as above mentioned are often faced to various issues that need to be coped with rapid and accurate solutions. For this reason, all related researchers from R&D should cooperate hand in hand with industries. This is a marvellous moment to bridge the relationship between them.

The Editor