According to Dow Jones Newswires, Posco chief executive officer Chung Joon-yang met with groups including Pacific Rubiales and Fanalca to discuss potential ties on a recent trip to Colombia.

Posco said that, as a result of Chung's visit, “a memorand[u]m of agreement is expected to be signed by September this year, with either Pacific Rubiales or Fanalca Group, for comprehensive business cooperation in Colombia”

In July, Canadian miner Fortune Minerals entered a joint venture with Posco for the development and operation of the Mount Klappan anthracite coal project in British Columbia, Canada.

Under the agreement between Fortune and Posco Klappan Coal subsidiary Posco Canada (Poscan), Fortune will own 80% of the project while Poscan will hold 20%.

Fortune will provide local development and operations expertise and Poscan will bring market knowledge and financial backing.

Poscan will put forth $C181 million in capital for Mount Klappan, including $30 million in upfront funding – $20 million of which will fund the JV – and 20% of total development and capital costs, estimated to be $154 million.

It will also provide $17.2 million in additional payments to Fortune as project milestones are met.

Poscan will receive 20% of the produced product.

The Mount Klappan metallurgical coal project, made up of 15,886 hectares of exploration licenses in northwest British Columbia, contains speculative resources of 2.2Bt and measured resources of 107.9Mt.

A study completed by Marston and Marston in 2010 based its findings on an open pit mine and wash plant producing 3Mt of pulverized coal injection coal per year for the international steel industry, with the ability to diversify production into other metallurgical coal products.