The $350 million equity valuation for Boardwalk – which includes the Monto, Siena project and 70% of the Dingo project in Queensland, 60% of Ferndale in NSW as well as a 19.9% stake in Coalworks - should be $150 million, according to Macquarie Equities.

It arrived at this figure by comparing the valuation with Bandanna Energy and Cockatoo Resources, which have one billion tonnes of resources. Boardwalk is yet to provide a JORC compliant resource statement.

Boardwalk’s projects have a combined maximum gross “exploration target” of 3 billion tonnes across thermal, hard coking and PCI coal types. Their mining methods would be a mixture of open cut and underground, according to the company’s presentation.

Because the Boardwalk valuation is based on the consideration of 85.88 million Whitehaven shares and 34.02 million additional shares if certain milestones are reached, the final valuation will depend on Whitehaven’s share price at the time of acceptance of the scheme of arrangement by shareholders.

Boardwalk shareholders would also contribute $150 million in cash to the company which would be used for the ongoing development of its assets if it is accepted.

The merger of the three companies – under the chairmanship of Tony Vaile – would create a coal company with saleable production of 6Mtpa of coal in FY2012. This is expected to increase to 25Mtpa by FY2016 and lead to a commanding position in the growing Gunnedah Basin of NSW.

The combined group would have JORC compliant resources of 2,451Mt and JORC compliant recoverable reserves of 842Mt.