Having acquired Fording Canadian Coal Trust in October for a heavily financed $US14 billion, Teck chief executive officer Donald Lindsay revealed on Tuesday the company could sell part of its 60% interest in coking coal exporter Elk Valley Coal.
Already Reuters has reported that major Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co could be among the potential bidders in $US2.5 billion deal, according to three unnamed sources “with direct knowledge of the matter”.
Teck’s coal operations in the December quarter netted $C486 million in operating profit from revenues of $1.6 billion, far eclipsing the company’s loss-making copper and zinc divisions, while the company’s gold business generated $C12 million in operating profit.
The diversified miner’s coal production fell 5% in the last three months of 2008 to 5.2 million tonnes compared to the same period in 2007, mainly due to lower customer demand.
