Whitehaven Coal Pays Coal & Allied A$31.5 Million For Vickery Project

Whitehaven Coal Ltd. (WHC.AU) said Tuesday it has struck a deal to pay Coal & Allied Industries Ltd. (CNA.AU) A$31.5 million for the Vickery coal project and surrounding tenements in New South Wales state.

As part of the deal, Whitehaven will also hand over 1,150 hectares of land in the Gunnedah region to Coal & Allied.

Whitehaven said it plans to target the development of both an open pit and underground mine at Vickery, which Managing Director Tony Haggarty said was an important bolt on acquisition for the company.

"It consolidates the company's significant tenement holding in the Gunnedah region and our expectation is that with focussed exploration in the next year, substantial open cut and underground coal resources will be defined," he said in a statement.

Coal & Allied, a unit of Rio Tinto Ltd. (RTP), said it expects the transaction to be completed in the fourth quarter of calendar 2009.

-By Alex Wilson, Dow Jones Newswires; 61-3-9292-2094; [e-mail]