Anglo American recently purchased the remaining 25% interest in Peace River Coal (PRC), which operates the Trend metallurgical coal mine and holds various exploration leases in British Columbia, Canada. The company purchased a 12.18% interest in PRC held by Northern Energy & Mining for US$76 million in cash and the 12.99% interest held by Hillsborough Resources for $81 million plus $9 million to acquire Hillsborough’s royalty rights relating to PRC.
“Peace River Coal is a large and high quality coking coal resource, supported by well developed power, rail and port infrastructure,” said Seamus French, CEO for Anglo American’s Metallurgical Coal business. “We see significant resource upside and plan to invest in further exploration studies to ascertain its full long term potential. In the near term, we will be progressing a feasibility study to increase production from 1 million mt/y to 3.5 million mt/y by 2015.”