KUCHING: Osho Ventures, which is located in South Africa, has set its eyes on coal mining in Sarawak and is prepared to invest close to RM40 million (US$10 million) if all goes well with its mining prospects.
A statement said the phase one expenditure is for technical work and subsequently there will be huge investments to follow based on the output of the technical studies.
Virendra Kumar Agrawal
“This would also depend on the mineability, availability of export infrastructure quality, and production output of coal. Based on this, Osho will structure a further investment plan to be submitted to the relevant authorities,” said the statement on Friday.
Osho Ventures is a multi-national conglomerate with a business portfolio in various sectors including exploration, mining, beneficiation, processing, and trading of minerals, mine waste, reprocessing and reuse, reprocessing of waste rubber and plastic, as well as development and construction of lifestyle residential estates.
“There are several locations in the state of Sarawak which have large coal deposits and Osho has done its groundwork by conducting their prospecting surveys and identifying them.
“Of the 10 locations in Sarawak, five locations have been confirmed to be available and we are ready to come and mine the coal for export with state of the art technology,” said Sumit Agrawal, founder and managing director of Osho Ventures, which originated in Mumbai, India and has been relocated to South Africa.
“Osho has expressed its interest to extract the rich deposits which are at present lying idle underground when it could be translated into revenue for the state government by way of royalties and taxes on exports.
Sumit Agrawal
“Osho estimates that close to 4,000 jobs would be created over the next three years,” said the statement.
Sumit and Osho Ventures executive chairman Virendra Kumar Agrawal, who has 30 years of experience in the trading of minerals, shipping and logistics were in the city recently.
Both Sumit and Virendra are seeking a strategic alliance with the state government.
“We believe that and our expertise in dealing with low grade, off specs coal is an advantage, which can assist Sarawak to maximise the value it can derive from such an alliance with us,” said the statement.
Sumit and Virendra were in Bintulu on Wednesday (Feb 12) and Kuching on Thursday (Feb 13) to visualise the accessibility, port connectivity, and infrastructure.