The deal will give Essar direct access to raw material for its worldwide steel and power operations.

Essar subsidiary Essar Minerals announced over the weekend it had signed a definitive agreement to buy Trinity from private equity firm Denham Capital.

As one of the top 10 US coal producers, Trinity is currently producing 7Mtpa of coal with plans to increase annual production to 10Mt.

Output is split equally between metallurgical coal and steam coal.

The company operates six mining complexes with a total of 10 surface mines, three underground mines and six highwall miner units in the Central Appalachian coal basin.

The firm is based in Scott Depot, West Virginia, and employs about 650 employees.

“Trinity Coal will be an excellent addition to our North American business, ensuring that we become an integrated player in the region,” Essay chief executive Prashant Ruia said.

Access to Trinity’s vast coal reserves and the opportunity to work with a team of skilled personnel will take us closer to our vision of becoming one of the lowest cost steel producers in the world.”

Essar director Rewant Ruia said the company’s long-term business strategy was to ensure its operations had proximity to global markets and was focusing on backward integration and securing access to raw material sources in geographies where it has operations.

Essar’s steelmaking capacity of 14Mt is spread across plants in Canada, India and Indonesia.

It also owns iron ore reserves of more than 1.4 billion tonnes in Minnesota. Additionally, the group is scaling up its power generation capacity in India to 6000 megawatts.

“Over the last five years, our partnership with Denham has strengthened our management team and enhanced operational quality to drive value across the organisation,” Trinity chief executive Ken Woodring said.

“In this new era of our firm, we are excited to become a leading provider of resources to Essar as it increases production to meet demand for its expanding customer base.”

Denham acquired Trinity in January 2005 and, during its ownership Trinity, more than doubled reserves as well as increased productive capacity from about 1.7Mtpa to 9Mtpa.

The deal is subject to relevant approvals and is expected to close by the end of the month.