Brazilian mining giant Vale SA's Australian subsidiary Vale Belvedere Pty Ltd (Vale Belvedere) is seeking to acquire 24.5 percent more interest in the Belvedere hard coking coal project located in southern Bowen Basin in Central Queensland, in order to make the project wholly-owned.
Western Australian miner Aquila Resources (Aquila) has said in a statement that Vale Belvedere has given Aquila's wholly-owned subsidiary, BD Coal Pty Ltd, a notice of exercise of option to acquire all of BD Coal's 24.5 percent interest in the project.
The JV agreement provides that two valuers are to be appointed to determine the "fair market" value for the exercise of option.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, Vale had announced on June 1 that it acquired an additional 24.5 percent stake in Belvedere for US$92 million from AMCI Investments Pty Ltd, increasing its participation to 75.5 percent from 51 percent.
According to preliminary estimates, once it is fully developed Belvedere has the potential to reach in the future a production capacity up to 7 million metric tons per year of coking coal.