Elan is located close to five operating coking coal mines owned by Teck with ready access to existing rail which connects to deep sea ports.

It contains an indicated and inferred coal resource of 146.5 million tonnes (JORC 2012).

The Elan acquisition represents final step before Kuro’s initial public offering, in which Atrum shareholders will be entitled to one free Kuro share for every four Atrum shares held, Atrum executive director and Kuro Coal non-executive director Gino D’Anna said.

“Atrum is solely focused on taking its world-class Groundhog anthracite project through to production, so Kuro can provide Atrum shareholders with exposure to an exciting exploration venture as well as commodity and jurisdictional diversification,” he said.

“The Elan acquisition is an outstanding coking coal opportunity and fits Kuro’s Canadian metallurgical coal strategy.”

Elan executive director Gene Wusaty said the joint venture would provide Elan with the opportunity to become a tier one coking coal project.

“Alberta is ranked third by the Fraser Institute as the best mining jurisdiction worldwide and is host to some of the highest quality coking coal. We are excited to be working with the Kuro team,” he said.