The deal, expected to close in the next fortnight, will provide Wesfarmers’ Curragh and Curragh North operations with an adjacent block containing 67 million tonnes of reserves and plenty of potential through its 255Mt of resources.

While more work is required to gain a mining lease over the MDL 162 area, Wesfarmers flagged on Monday that the new block could boost total reserves for Curragh’s coal processing plant by 29%.

Wesfarmers Resources’ managing director Stewart Butel said that the acquisition reflected on the company’s confidence in the longer-term outlook for Curragh’s export coal business.

The Curragh open mining operations produce around 8.5Mt per annum of export metallurgical coal and 3Mtpa of domestic thermal coal.