Gregory Crinum is a hard coking coal mine located 60km north east of Emerald in the Bowen Basin, comprising the Crinum underground mine and Gregory open cut mine.
The mine features undeveloped coal resources and on-site infrastructure including a coal handling and preparation plant, maintenance workshops and administration facilities.
BMA asset president James Palmer said: “We wish Sojitz well in its plans to recommence production at Gregory Crinum. This will provide new job opportunities and trade benefits for the people of central Queensland, as well as increased royalties and taxes to benefit the state.”
The Gregory Crinum Mine had a capacity of six million tons of hard coking coal per annum when production was ceased in January 2016. Later, the mine was placed into care and maintenance.
Following a detailed review that concluded there is potential for another party to realize greater value at the site, BMA has made the decision to sell the mine to Sojitz.
In addition to the sale, the company said it is providing appropriate funding for rehabilitation of existing areas of disturbance, with all rehabilitation liabilities at the site are transferred to Sojitz.
The company noted that net impact from this funding is not material for BHP or Mitsubishi and the completion of the acquisition was subject to the fulfilment of conditions including customary regulatory approvals.
In October last year, BHP signed a deal to increase its stake in Australian gold and copper mining company SolGold in a move to boost its share in the Cascabel copper-gold project in Ecuador.
SolGold is the majority owner and operator of the Cascabel copper-gold project, a porphyry copper- gold deposit found in the Imbabura province of northwest Ecuador.
BHP, under a share subscription agreement, has agreed to buy a further 100 million shares in SolGold, at 45p per share to increase its stake from 6.01% to 11.2%.
