Lanco Infratech Acquired Coal Mine from Griffin Coal

Lanco Infratech Ltd of India on 14 December 2010 announced that it acquired one of the leading coal mines in western Australia which was formerly owned by the failed Griffin Coal for $850 million.  The mine is strategically located in the western coast of Australia, hence closer to India compared to the mines in New South Wales and Queensland. The port nearest to the mine is the port of Bunbury located at a distance of 85 kilometers from the mine. After development of infrastructure production can be ramped up to over 15 mpta in the near term. The mining tenements contain over 1.1 billion tonne of JORC compliant thermal coal resources. Lanco’s acquisition will lead to investment in order to expand the mine operations.

Griffin Coal is an independent thermal coal producer which has an established operations and substantial export growth potential. The company produced more than 4.0 mpta of coal during the year ended 2010. Griffin is the largest supplier of coal to west Australia’s domestic industrial coal market.