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Johannesburg, Mar 8 (I-Net Bridge) - Xstrata Coal says it has agreed to acquire the Sukunka hard coking coal deposit from Talisman Energy Incorporated for US$500 million in cash, in a deal that will be subject to customary conditions.
Sukunka is located in the Peace River Coalfield of northern British Columbia, and it is contiguous to First Coal Corporation and Lossan tenements acquired by Xstrata Coal in August and October 2011 respectively.
Sukunka reportedly holds an NI 43-101 compliant coal resource of 236 million tonnes in measured and indicated categories.
Norwest Corporation has completed a pre-feasibility study for a long wall mine producing hard coking coal.
According to Xstrata Coal, its technical studies indicated the resource had the potential to realise further value.
"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," Xstrata Coal chief executive, Peter Freyberg, said.
