PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Australian coal miner Stanmore Coal has secured A$3-million in funding from the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (Jogmec) to accelerate work at the Isaac Plains East opencut project, in Queensland, and the investment decision for the Isaac Plains underground project.
Stanmore on Tuesday announced that it had signed a new joint exploration and support agreement with Jogmec, following a number of successful deals between the companies over several years.
In return for the investment, Jogmec will have an annual right to tender a portion of the coking coal produced from these projects to end-users in Japan. The annual right will continue for five to seven years.
The annual right is split between coal produced from each project and is, therefore, contingent on each project reaching commercial production, Stanmore said.
The annual right could also fit within volumes shipped to current Japanese end-users.
Stanmore reopened the Isaac Plains mine in May 2016, after taking formal ownership of the mothballed mine for $1 in November 2015. The mine can produce at a rate of 1.1-million tonnes a year, with coal to be exported to Asian steel mills.
The project could be expanded through the addition of underground workings and the development of the Isaac Plains East deposit.