SouthCoal is owned by private company Excel Equities (27.8%), investment company Eureka Capital Partners (13.9%), venture capital company Resource Capital Fund (35%) and coal services provider Sada (23.3%).
Excel will provide management services to the mine and Sada will continue to provide contract coal preparation and handling services.
“The acquisition by SouthCoal is an important milestone in the renewal of Metropolitan,” SouthCoal said in a statement. “It brings together a group of investors and managers with strong coal industry expertise for the future while maintaining continuity with Max Dunbier and his team who successfully re-commenced mining at Metropolitan in 1999 and re-established Metropolitan coking coal in export markets during the last two years.”
Metropolitan has substantial coal reserves and resources of over 70 million tonnes in its existing leases. Directors said the immediate focus at Metropolitan will be to consolidate its position as a reliable, competitive supplier of premium coking coal to a wide range of export markets. In the 12 months ended December 2001, Metropolitan produced 1.387 million tonnes of raw coal, a 42% increase over the 972,500t produced during the previous period.
The purchase of a substantial interest in Metropolitan by Excel Mining and Eureka Capital Partners follows their purchase in early March 2002 of 76% of the Wallarah Coal Joint Venture (WCJV) near Lake Macquarie, NSW, from BHP Billiton. The WCJV assets include the Moonee longwall mine, Catherine Hill Bay coal preparation plant, Chain Valley mine and Wallarah mine, currently under care and maintenance.
Excel said Moonee was currently mining its last block and would wrap up longwall mining in June this year. Thereafter the mine would be closed and the longwall equipment made available for sale. The Catherine Hill Bay coal preparation plant will also be closed, as would the Wallarah mine.
Excel managing director Tony Haggarty said only the Chain Valley bord and pillar mine would continue operating, with plans to double the current production rate to about 800,000 tonnes per annum. To achieve this the company is considering introducing a second bord and pillar unit.
Excel and Eureka also jointly own 75% of the Wambo longwall mine in the Hunter Valley which produced 3.5Mt ROM to December 2001. The Wambo longwall mine is scheduled to be closed by July/August this year with operations to shift to a large open-cut proven reserve of 45Mt. A small-scale open-cut has been in operation since August last year and will be progressively ramped up to the target production of 4Mt ROM for 3Mt clean coal.
Their asset purchases over the last 15 months give Excel and Eureka managed coal production of just over 6Mt ROM.
