According to the Australian Financial Review, the coal terminal project was due to receive its last major capital item, a 1300-tonne Malaysia-made shiploader, on Wednesday.

“Coal trains will be unloaded in late October with WICET due to start exporting coal on November 25,” the newspaper reported.

“Coal miners must start making payments to WICET once coal is loaded on to ships and will need to pay for their allocated capacity regardless of whether they are producing coal or not.

“Bandanna’s collapse will force the remaining miners to ship additional coal to compensate for the shortfall, find other miners who want to ship coal, or make additional financial payments.

“Hedge funds are watching WICET closely for signs its banking syndicate, which has loaned some $2.45 billion in senior debt to the project, will not get its money back.”

WICET is expected to have 27 million tonnes per annum of throughput capacity by early 2015.

The initial WICET consortium comprised Xstrata (now Glencore), Bandanna, Caledon Coal, Cockatoo Coal, Aquila Resources, Yancoal, Wesfarmers and New Hope Coal.