Excel announced yesterday it had completed the issue of US$106 million of long term senior unsecured notes to lenders in the United States Private Placement Market.
The proceeds will be used to repay A$26 million of secured debt and build rail infrastructure at Wambo.
Barclay Mowlem has been awarded the contract to construct the fifteen kilometre rail spur from Mount Thorley to Wambo and contracts for the coal handling and loading facilities will be awarded shortly.
Wambo’s current open cut operation produces 4.2Mt ROM coal per annum and holds resources of 690 million tonnes. Proposed expansion plans at Wambo include extension of the open cut to produce 7.5Mtpa ROM and extension of the Wollemi drift to provide access to lower, unmined seams. Up to 104 million tonnes of coal – more than half current recoverable reserves – could be mined by longwall over the next 20 years.
The other major development projects to be funded by the notes are the expansion of the Wambo coal processing plant and construction of the Millennium opencut coking coal mine and coal preparation plant in Queensland’s Bowen Basin.
Construction of these projects is also expected to be completed during the fourth quarter of calendar 2005.
