UPDATE 3-Australian Pacific eyes thermal coal mine restart in Q4 with $50 mln debt funding

Reuters SG
Updated 1-min read
In this article:

(Changes dateline, confirms name of commodities trading firm)

Aug 18 (Reuters) - Australian Pacific Coal said on Thursday it will resume operations at its Dartbrook thermal coal mine in the fourth quarter after it secured a letter of intent for debt funding of up to $50 million from commodity trading giant Trafigura.

The first batch of coal sales from the New South Wales-based mine are likely to happen in the first quarter of fiscal 2024, Australian Pacific said.

Shares of the miner climbed 19.4% to a three-month high of A$0.185 on Thursday.

"Thermal coal prices have recently rallied and this is an opportune time to be a new source of supply of NEWC spec coal into the export market," CEO Ayten Saridas said in a statement.

The company has been in negotiations with several parties for debt funding to support the resumption of production at the mine.

(Reporting by Navya Mittal in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)