Australia’s leading independent law firm, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, has advised MACH Energy Australia Pty Ltd in relation to its recently announced agreement with JCD Australia Pty Ltd (JCDA) to establish the Mount Pleasant Joint Venture.
Under the agreement, JCDA will acquire a 5% interest in the Mount Pleasant coal project and MACH and JCDA will establish the Mount Pleasant Joint Venture to develop and operate the Mount Pleasant coal mine.
Japan Coal Development Co Ltd (JCD) (the parent of JCDA), will acquire Mount Pleasant Newcastle benchmark product MTP 6000 coal from the Mount Pleasant Joint Venture under a coal offtake agreement and will undertake exclusive marketing activities for the Mount Pleasant Joint Venture to a select group of Japanese power utilities. JCD will also undertake non-exclusive marketing activities for the Mount Pleasant Joint Venture to other customers in Japan.
MACH will market coal to non-exclusive customers in Japan, alongside JCD, and to the rest of the world.
Mount Pleasant is located in the NSW’s Hunter Valley and once fully developed will be one of the premier thermal coal mines in Australia. Construction at Mount Pleasant is nearing completion and first coal sales from the operation are expected in the second half of 2018.
The Corrs team was led by Partner Bruce Adkins and supported by Special Counsel Stuart Clague.
Corrs partner Bruce Adkins said, “Corrs acted for MACH when it acquired the Mount Pleasant project from Rio Tinto in 2016 and has since worked with MACH on the project’s development. We are delighted to have acted for MACH on this further significant transaction which is another important milestone for the company.”