The Millennium preparation facility in Queensland is capable of processing 6Mt of coal annually, which will now be split between the two companies. The facility will serve both Peabody's Millennium Mine and BHP Mitsui's Poitrel Mine.
The Millennium opencut mine began ramping up last year and is on track to produce 3Mtpa by 2010.
Peabody executive vice-president Eric Ford said the joint venture allowed Peabody to increase its reserves and continue to ramp up to full production capacity at the Millennium mine.
"This value-added transaction gives us significant metallurgical and PCI coal reserves at a time of record demand and pricing," Ford said.
