OGL Resources was last interested in buying this mine from privately owned Zedemar, but two landowners stymied the proposed deal being completed through various legal challenges to an Ebenezer mining licence renewal.

The last appeal to the High Court of Australia was rejected in February.

“The acquisition agreements the company had entered into and that had been the focus of the company’s expenditure from May 2011 has lapsed,” OGL later said in its 2013 annual report.

“The company is currently reviewing its position regarding this project.”

Australia-listed Coalbank, which was partially acquired (62.34%) by Hong Kong-based Loyal Strategic Investment a year ago, aims to buy the closed mine for $10 million.

Under the deal, announced on Monday, Coalbank said it would also pay Zedemar a royalty of $1 per saleable tonne of coal produced from the two Ebenezer mining licences with this capped at 20 million tonnes ($20 million).

Various conditions need to be satisfied in the next 60 days for the deal to go ahead.

These include Foreign Investment Review Board approval plus the need for Coalbank to secure enough financing to complete the deal.

The mine, which is on care and maintenance, has 13.7Mt of probable reserves and 308.2Mt of resources, with most of it inferred (284.1Mt).

Coalbank said the coal quality was of a high grade thermal coal, with energy values of about 6700 kilocalories per kilogram.

The mine site is about 10km southwest of Ipswich.

OGL is no longer seeking coal plays.