Worth $A8.5-12 million, the agreement is open for six months and is subject to certain conditions.

The Broughton tenement is located in Queensland’s Bowen Basin, adjacent to Rio Tinto’s Hail Creek mine, and holds a 30 million tonne coal resource contained in two seams.

In June 2005, Eastern entered a joint venture agreement with Mitsui Coal Holdings worth $4 million to complete a feasibility study into the development of the resource.

In early 2007, Eastern announced it would not develop Broughton as a stand-alone project.

Eastern has been looking to offload its stake for some time, with Rio Tinto twice pulling out of buying Broughton last year. Both times Rio offered $10 million.

Earlier this year, Indian coke manufacturer Ennore Coke was rumoured to be interested in Eastern’s stake in the project.

Resource Portfolio Partners holds interests in coking and thermal coal and uranium.

Eastern shares climbed 5.48% to 77c at close of trade today following a massive jump of 30.5% on Monday.