US energy investment firm AMCI and its associates have increased their stake in Australian mining firm Whitehaven Coal to 15pc.
AMCI and its directors Hans Mende and Fritz Kundrun have bought 15pc of Whitehaven during the past month for A$110mn ($103mn) at A$1.70 a share.
AMCI's move is a vote of confidence by a firm that well understands the coal market, according to Whitehaven, which is developing the 13mn t/yr Maules Creek thermal coal project and posted a A$38.4mn 2013-14 full-year loss today. AMCI has also invested in the remote Galilee thermal coal basin in Queensland and has a 25pc stake in the $7bn West Pilbara iron ore project, which Chinese steelmaker Baosteel bought into through its takeover of Aquila Resources.
Whitehaven's loss for the year ending 30 June was an improvement on the A$88.7mn loss it made in 2012-13. This was partly because of a reduction in unit costs to $69/t from $76/t the previous year.
Whitehaven hinted that the Maules Creek project, in the Gunnedah basin of northern New South Wales, may progress slightly ahead of schedule and produce its first coal before March 2015. The project is owned 75pc by Whitehaven, with Japanese trading house Itochu holding 15pc and Japanese power producer J-Power with 10pc.
joc/rjd
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