By Shani Raja and Jesse Riseborough Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) — Resourcehouse Ltd. , the iron ore and coal company controlled by Australian billionaire Clive Palmer , said it’s secured Australia’s largest export contract, worth $60 billion. The company reached a 20-year sales agreement with one of China’s largest power companies, China Power International Development Ltd., the flagship company of China Power Investment Corporation, Resourcehouse said today in an e- mailed statement that cites comments by Palmer. “This deal with CPI is Australia’s biggest export contract,” Palmer, 55, is quoted as saying in the release. The contract involves Resourcehouse’s proposed China First coal mine and infrastructure project in central Queensland state. Palmer, Australia’s fifth-richest man, aims to raise as much as $3 billion in a Hong Kong initial sale of shares in Resourcehouse, which plans to spend A$10.2 billion ($8.9 billion) to develop two mines in Australia. The company aims to supply coal and iron ore to steel mills and power companies in China, challenging producers such as BHP Billiton Ltd. According to today’s press release, Palmer said he’d awarded Queensland’s largest engineering and construction- management contract, worth more than $8 billion, to Metallurgical Corp. of China Ltd. Job Creation “There will be a huge flow-on of employment from both the construction phase through to operation of the mine, port and rail,” Resourcehouse’s Executive Director Phil McNamara is quoted in the release as saying. “There is a potential to create 50,000 to 70,000 indirect jobs in Queensland.” Metallurgical Corp. signed an accord to buy $200 million of shares in Resourcehouse on Feb. 3. The Chinese company will own no more than 5 percent of the company, and also agreed to take a 10 percent stake in the China First coal project. China, the world’s largest consumer of coal and metals, last year announced $32 billion of resource acquisitions to fuel the world’s fastest-growing major economy. The Export-Import Bank of China confirmed it’s agreed to lead financing for the coal project, today’s release said. Thermal Coal Resourcehouse has the right to mine 1.4 billion tons of soft thermal coal at China First, in the Galilee Basin in Australia’s Queensland state, Macquarie analyst Andrew Dale said in a Nov. 6 report. Palmer completed the acquisition of Waratah Coal Inc. in April for about C$98 million ($93 million) to gain control of the project. China First, scheduled to start operations in the second half of 2013 and produce as much as 40 million tons a year, may become one of the world’s largest exporters of power station coal, Macquarie said. The bank values the project at between $4.2 billion and $4.9 billion. China’s demand for coal, used to generate about 80 percent of the nation’s power, has jumped as the government’s 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus spending drove economic growth in the third quarter to the fastest pace in a year. Resourcehouse also has the right to mine 10 billion tons of iron ore in the Pilbara region of Western Australia and has the potential to become the world’s fourth-largest iron ore producer, Macquarie said. The company’s directors include Zhengrong Shi, chief executive officer of the world’s largest maker of silicon solar panels, Suntech Power Holdings Co. , and former Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. Its other interests include oil and gas in Australia and Papua New Guinea, Macquarie said. To contact the reporters on this story: Shani Raja in Sydney at sraja4@bloomberg.net . Jesse Riseborough in Melbourne at jriseborough@bloomberg.net .
See more here:
Palmer’s Resourcehouse Wins $60 Billion Export Deal, `Australia’s Largest’
