Now you own it, now you don't

摘要

CHURCHILL MINING, a London-listed firm, announced in May 2008 that it had found 150m tonnes of coal in In-donesian Borneo. This was an under-estimate. The firm now thinks there are 2.8 billion tonnes, making it the seventh-largest undeveloped reserve in the world. Alas for Churchill, other people quick-ly grew interested. The Nusantara Group, a conglomerate controlled by Prabowo Subianto, a politician, had previously controlled the mining in that area. Six companies affiliated with Nusantara held licences for six blocks in the East Kutai district of East Kalimantan prov-ince, but did not explore for coal. Those six licences expired between March 2006 and March 2007, after which the district government began offering the mining area to other firms. Churchill entered the