The billionaire who bet on coal's future – and won big

Low Tuck Kwong is estimated to be worth NZ$50 billion. (Image: File)

Sun, 12 Jan 2025

By Jon EmontDeep in Indonesian Borneo, workers lay asphalt on a new 96km road being built to transport coal from mines that have never been busier.At one end of the road, crews built a 12m-high conveyor belt that whisks the coal over swampland to a new jetty on the Mahakam River. From there, the coal is funnelled onto barges and floated downstream to a private port on the Pacific Ocean. Giant loading machines fill equally massive ships headed for China, India and the Philippines.Coal, the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel, is booming...

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