As the companies move towards an expected February close, GCC said Friday that the plan of arrangement with 1629835 Alberta, indirectly jointly owned by Winsway and Marubeni for the purpose of this transaction, has received the approval of both its shareholders and the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta.

The deal was overwhelmingly approved Thursday at a special shareholders meeting. Its board green-lighted the transaction last year.

Completion is still pending Investment Canada Act approval and the approval of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and GCC said a February completion is still in sight.

The Alberta-headquartered company first said in October that that the cash deal works out to $10 per common share, a 70% premium over the closing price on October 28 and a 112% premium over the 20-day volume weighted average trading price on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

“We believe the arrangement is a compelling transaction for Grande Cache Coal's shareholders and recognizes our highly attractive mining operation and the exceptional team that we have assembled at Grande Cache Coal,” president and chief executive officer Robert Stan said.

“In addition, Marubeni has had a long standing business relationship with the corporation and has a 40-year history with the corporation's mine. Furthermore, Winsway is one of our main customers for the Chinese market.”

Grande Cache Coal holds coal leases covering more than 22,000 hectares with an estimated 346 million tonnes of coal resources in the Smoky River coalfield in Canada.

Its underground mining activity currently includes the No. 7 area and the No. 12 South B2 underground area. The former, a room and pillar operation, commenced production in November 2004 and extracts from the No. 4 seam.

The latter, meanwhile, is still undergoing development and expected to start regular production during the company’s third fiscal quarter starting October 1. Its estimated resource base totals 11.6 million tonnes.