14/05/2009

Article Details

Source: Business Spectator

Author: Author

Article Date: 14/05/2009

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Summary

As exciting as it is, the stoush between Noble Group and Gloucester Coal is not the only game in charcoal town, with Linc Energy set to acquire a 92,059 acre coal tenement and White Energy Company signing a deal which will see US giant Peabody Energy taking a 15 per cent stake in the coal technology company.

Both deals centre on the Powder River Basin of Wyoming, where White Energy and Peabody, the world’s largest non-government coal producer, will develop a coal upgrading plant. Under the terms of White Energy’s agreement with the NYSE-listed firm, a number of other clean coal plants will be built in the US and China following the project at Powder River: a 20 million tonne per annum operation that White Energy says will be the world’s largest such plant.

Linc Energy’s purchase agreement will, meanwhile, see it acquire a 100 per cent interest of an estimated 7 billion to 8 billion tonne exploration target for $US5 million. The purchase of the target, currently owned by Wyoming corporation GasTech, is subject to remaining due diligence enquiries, with settlement of the transaction expected in about 60 days, Linc said in an announcement.

There are also several developments in coal seam gas with Liquefied Natural Gas completing the placement of 17 million shares at 56 cents each, raising $9.52 million. The capital raising, arranged by Paterson Securities as lead manager and Bell Potter Securities as co-manager, will give LNG extra funds to develop its Fisherman’s Landing gas plant near the port of Gladstone…