Canada’s EastCoal extends coal off-take agreement with Metinvest

Canada's Ukraine-focused coal miner EastCoal Inc. has announced that the off-take agreement with Ukrainian mining and steel producing group Metinvest Holding for the purchase of metallurgical coal from East Coal's Menzhinsky coking coal mine in Ukraine has been extended to December 31, 2013. The tonnages have also been increased to 312,000 mt per year with a shipping volume of 26,000 mt per month starting from January 2013.
 
Additionally, Metinvest has agreed to accept 12,000 mt of coal per month for November 2012 and December 2012, doubling its current off-take. The coal has to comply with Metinvest's quality standards and will be priced at the then prevailing market prices.
 
With the extension of the agreement, EastCoal has secured the sale of 100 percent of its planned production from the underground mining operations at the Menzhinsky mine. "At current market prices, excluding VAT, this would result in excess of $40 million of revenue," the company statement read.