Australia’s Resourcehouse said yesterday it had secured a deal worth US$60 billion to supply coal to Chinese power stations over a 20-year period, calling it Australia’s largest-ever export contract.
Company chairman Clive Palmer said that coal mined in Queensland state from a major new project would be sold to China Power International Development Ltd (中國電力國際發展公司), a unit of China Power Investment Corp (CPI, 中電集團).
“This deal with CPI is Australia’s biggest-ever export contract,” Palmer said in a statement.
Executive director Phil McNamara, who helped broker the deal, said the contract with CPI was to supply 30 million tonnes annually over 20 years, with an approximate value of US$3 billion per year.
The announcement comes ahead of an expected IPO in Hong Kong next month that is thought likely to raise up to US$3 billion for Resourcehouse.
The coal will come from a new US$8 billion mining project in central Queensland, under development by Resourcehouse subsidiary China First Pty Ltd, which will establish a second major thermal coal mining region in Australia, alongside the Hunter Valley in New South Wales state.
China Power International Development Chairwoman Li Xiaolin (李小琳) welcomed the deal, saying its power plants mainly supplied electricity to the eastern, central and northern China grids
“The project is opening up a massive new coal resource and the CPI Group of companies are pleased to be involved in the project,” she said.
The China First project will be located in the Galilee Basin region near Alpha, west of the town of Emerald, and will include four underground mines, two surface mines, plus associated handling and processing facilities.
It will be linked to a coal terminal on the Queensland coast at Abbot Point by a new 490km railway line.
The company says the project, which is awaiting final approval by the Queensland government, will create 6,000 jobs during construction and 1,500 when operational.
Resourcehouse said it had also awarded a US$8.013 billion contract to Metallurgical Corporation of China Ltd (MCC, 中國冶金科工公司) to build the mine and associated export infrastructure.
Resourcehouse’s board of directors includes Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd (尚德太陽能電力公司) chairman Shi Zhengrong (施正榮) and former Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer.
Li is the daughter of former Chinese premier Li Peng (李鵬).
China, the world’s top coal producer and consumer, became a net importer of coal last year, after more than tripling its coal imports to feed faster-than-expected recovery in demand that was compounded by a harsh winter.
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