Rio Tinto completes the US$3.95bn sale of its Australian coal assets

The Australian-British multinational mining and metals corporation Rio Tinto has completed the US$3.95bn sale of its remaining coal assets in Queensland (Australia), including the Hail Creek operations, the Valeria coal development project and the Kestrel and Valeria operations. The transaction fits into Rio Tinto's global strategy to exit coal and focus on growth in its iron ore, copper and aluminium divisions.



In March 2018, Rio Tinto agreed to sell the Hail Creek coal mine and the Valeria coal development project to the Anglo–Swiss multinational commodity trading and mining company Glencore for a total consideration of US$1.7bn, including both Rio Tinto's 82% operating stake in the Hail Creek mine and a 71.2% interest in the Valeria coal project. Later on, the company also agreed to sell its 80% stake in the Kestrel underground coal mine operations in the Bowen Basin to the private equity company EMR Capital and Indonesia’s coal producer PT Adaro Energy, for a total consideration of US$2.25bn. In 2017, the company had sold the Hunter Valley coal operations sale to the Chinese company Yancoal for a total consideration of US$2.7bn.



The Bowen Basin in Queensland is claimed to be one of the world's top metallurgical coal producing regions. Among the assets sold by Rio Tinto, the Kestrel mine produced 5.1 Mt of saleable coal in 2017, of which 0.84 Mt of thermal coal. Its marketable reserves stood at 146 Mt while its resources were estimated at 241 Mt. Hail Creek mine's marketable reserves stood at 142 Mt in 2017 and its total mineral resources were estimated at 601 Mt. It produced 4.13 Mt of thermal coal in 2017. Valeria project is estimated to contain 762 Mt of mineral coal resources and will produce low ash thermal and coking coal products once developed.