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On March 7, Firestone announced it had received interest from Tata in the JV project.
The proposed investment offer was based on the value of the Waterberg coal project, which tips in at about $US124 million.
If approved, Tata would have acquired the 30% stake in Waterberg in two separate stages.
Today, Firestone said it had turned down the offer on the grounds that, in the opinion of the directors, the offer materially undervalued the value built up in the project to date.
At the time of the offer, Firestone chief executive officer David Knox said the board was pleased to receive the formal offer from such a “highly respected multinational power company”
Black economic empowerment company Sekoko Coal has a 40% stake in the Waterberg coal project while Firestone holds the remaining 60%.
The Waterberg project comprises eight farms in the Waterberg coalfield totalling some 7979 hectares with a proven JORC resource of 1.8 billion tonnes.
Waterberg will kick off production in 2014.
A ramp-up of output over a period of five years will see the mine produce 10 million tonnes per annum.
