Noble Group may sell some Australian coal assets to Gloucester Coal
09 May 2011
New South Wales-based Gloucester, which is 65-per cent-owned by Noble Group, went into a trading halt this morning "in connection with two potential acquisitions and a potential capital raising," the company said in a statement.
Gloucester today said that its securities will be placed in a trading halt pending the release of the announcement and will remain in place till the start of trade on Wednesday 11 May, unless the company made the announcement before that.
According to analysts, Gloucester is expected to acquire Sydney-based Donaldson Coal Pty Ltd, a coal miner that has coal mines in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales state, which is fully owned by Nobel Group.
Donaldson Coal owns three coal mines, the Donaldson open cut mine, the Tasman underground mine near Mt Sugarloaf and the Abel underground mine in the Black Hill area.
Gloucester Coal produces both coking and thermal coal in the Gloucester Basin, along with semi hard coking coal and Low Volatile Pulverised Coal Injection (LV PCI) from operations in the Bowen Basin.
It has a 50-per cent stake in the Middlemount coal project, which has resource of 122.6 million tons, with a recoverable reserve of 96 million tons.