Xstrata Coal to acquire Sukunka Hard Coking Coal Deposit

Friday, 09 Mar 2012

Xstrata Coal has agreed to acquire the Sukunka hard coking coal deposit from Talisman Energy Inc for USD 500 million in cash, subject to customary conditions.

Sukunka is located in the Peace River Coalfield of northern British Columbia, contiguous with First Coal Corporation and Lossan tenements acquired by Xstrata Coal in August and October 2011 respectively.

Sukunka has an NI 43-101 compliant coal resource of 236 million tonnes in the Measured and Indicated categories. Norwest Corporation has completed a pre-feasibility study for a longwall mine producing hard coking coal. Xstrata Coal’s technical studies indicate the potential to realise further value from the resource.

Mr Peter Freyberg CEO of Xstrata Coal said that “Based on our due diligence and technical analysis, Sukunka has the potential to be a high quality metallurgical coal mine. Once developed, Sukunka would meaningfully increase our exposure to hard coking coal, while unlocking synergies with our neighbouring assets in the Peace River coalfield and providing additional regional scale.”

Source - Xstrata

Teck inks new coal handling deal with Westshore

Mar5, 2011 By Mining Weekly

Canada's biggest diversified miner, Teck Resources, has signed a new four-year agreement with Westshore Terminals to ship metallurgical coal from the company's British Columbia and Alberta mines through the export facility, sources reported.

The agreement, of which the commercial terms are confidential, covers the period from Apr 1, 2012, to Mar 31, 2016.

The new agreement contemplates Teck shipping 16 million tonnes coal in the initial contract year, and larger amounts in subsequent years when Teck's production is scheduled to increase, all at fixed rates through Westshore, the company said.

In Sep 2010, Teck lowered its coal sales forecast for the year, partly because of temporary capacity constraints at the Westshore Terminals export facility in the second half of the year.

Westshore is the top coal-export facility in Canada.