Acquisitions:

The first acquisition completed by Yancoal was the former Southland Coal Mine in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales.   The second major transaction was the takeover of Felix Resources for A$3.3 billion in December 2009.

Austar Coal Mine Pty Limited

The acquisition of Southland Coal Mine was completed in December 2004 and renamed Austar Coal Mine. A subsidiary company, Austar Coal Mine Pty Limited, (ABN 67-111-910-822) with  paid up capital of AU$ 64,000,000, was formed to hold the assets.

Production of development coal started in July 2005 and production using LTCC technology commenced in October 2006.

As at December 2010, Austar Coal Mine employed approximately 332 technical operatives and managerial staff.  In addition, a number of technical and managerial staff from the parent company in China worked as expatriates to train the Australian personnel in the use of LTCC.

The scope of work undertaken by Austar Coal Mine includes technical studies, safety monitoring of underground mining, ventilation, conveyer belt maintenance, operating the water treatment plants, washing of coal, environmental protection, rail transportation and port loading.

Felix Resources Ltd

Further expansion of Yancoal Australia’s presence in the Australian mining sector was completed in December 2009 with the acquisition of Felix Resources Ltd (ABN 75-000-754-174) for a total of A$3.3 billion. Felix operated four coal mines including the Minerva Coal Mine and the Yarrabee Coal Mine in Queensland’s Bowen Basin and the Ashton Coal Mine and the Moolarben Coal Mine in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales. Moolarben, Minerva and Yarrabee are open cut mines.

During 2010 one of the joint venture parties in the Minerva Coal Mine exercised its pre-emptive right and purchased the 51% interest in the joint venture held by Yancoal. In a separate transaction, Yancoal Australia purchased an additional 30% interest in the Ashton Coal Mine in New South Wales to increase its ownership in the mine to 90%.

Syntech Resources

As another step in the growth ambitions for Yancoal Australia, the company successfully completed the purchase of Syntech Resources, the owner of the Cameby Downs Mine and several other coal tenements in the Surat basin of southern Queensland on 31 July 2011.  The new Cameby Downs Mine and surrounding tenements contain large JORC Resources of 723Mt of thermal coal. Further exploration and delineation drilling is likely to add another 1.0 billion tonnes to the current resource base.

The Cameby Downs Mine is currently producing 1.4Mtpa of high quality thermal coal.

Media Release - Syntech Resources Purchase