Rio Tinto sells Mount Pleasant coal mine for $224 million

Rio Tinto has reached a binding agreement for the sale of its Mount Pleasant thermal coal assets to MACH Energy Australia Pty Ltd for $224 million plus royalties. 

With the recently announced binding agreement for the sale of Rio Tinto’s interest in the neighboring Bengalla coal Joint Venture, this amounts to $830 million of agreed sales.

• Related: Mining management: BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Vale

“These agreements for over $800 million in asset sales deliver significant value for our shareholders, with the potential for future royalties from Mount Pleasant,” Rio Tinto Copper & Coal Chief Executive Jean-Sébastien Jacques said.

“We believe Mount Pleasant can have a very positive future under its new owners with different priorities for development and capital allocation.”

Rio Tinto has now announced or completed $4.7 billion of divestments since January 2013. Mount Pleasant is a large-scale, thermal coal asset in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales with total marketable reserves of 474 million tons.

The sale is subject to certain conditions precedent being met, including completion of the restructure of Coal & Allied and regulatory approvals, and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2016.

Rio Tinto manages Coal & Allied's coal operations, which are located in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales, Australia. The operations include Mount Thorley Warkworth, Hunter Valley Operations and Bengalla. Hunter Valley Operations and Mount Thorley Warkworth are multi-seam, multi-pit, open-cut mining operations that produced 5.2 million tons of semi-soft coking coal and 19.5 million tons of thermal coal in 2015.

Stay connected! Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook 

Check out the latest edition of Mining Global