Johannesburg - Anglo American announced on Monday the completion of the sale of its 83.33 percent interest in the mothballed Dartbrook coal mine located in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia, to Australian Pacific Coal Limited (AQC).
This follows the announcement of the sale and purchase agreement in December 2015.
When the sale was announced, Anglo said it would sell the Dartbrook coal mine to (AQC) for up to A$50 million, which included an upfront cash payment of A$25 million, as well as royalties on future production up to an additional A$25 million.
Anglo American agreed to provide AQC with a secured vendor loan of A$7.7 million in connection with the AQC's acquisition of Anglo's 83.33 percent share of the Dartbrook Joint Venture.
Anglo said that the sale was consistent with the restructuring and radical restructuring of the portfolio, amounting to a 60 percent reduction in the number of assets, announced in 2015.
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Dartbrook, an underground thermal coal mine and processing infrastructure, has been on care and maintenance since 2006.
AQC's chief executive, John Robinson, said this was an exciting time and a new era for the company.
Robinson said the completion of the Dartbrook acquisition represented a significant milestone for AQC as it transitioned to an emerging coal mining company with the addition of the Dartbrook assets to its existing Queensland tenements.
"We have assembled a strong and experienced Board and Management team to take Dartbrook forward. Work commenced earlier this year with a comprehensive review of geological and coal quality data as part of a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) into the open cut potential at Dartbrook," Robinson said.
"The PFS is exploring the potential for part of the coal resource to be mined by modern, low impact technologies not seen in the Hunter Valley previously.
The PFS will be completed later this year."
Robinson said AQC looked forward to working with the local, state, and federal governments, the local community and other stakeholders to explore the feasibility of the responsible development of the valuable Dartbrook coal resource.