The company has signed a memorandum of understanding and a definitive technology services agreement to become the exclusive partner to Zhengzhou for the project.
On top of the licence fee, which is payable on successful completion of the project, Carbon also will be entitled to a number of fees throughout the project and will receive ongoing royalties from production.
It will earn another $10,000 in fees for the initial site characterisation and suitability study.
If the Haoqin site is unsuitable, other coal leases owned by Zhengmei will be assessed.
The Haoqin coal resource has more than seven years of drilling and seismic data available and a 3.1 billion tonne coal resource, which has been approved by the China Ministry.
