Anglo American has agreed to acquire a 58.9% interest in the Revuboè metallurgical coal project in Mozambique from the Talbot Estate for $555 million in cash. The Revuboè project is a joint venture that includes Nippon Steel (33.3%), and POSCO (7.8%). Revuboè has a reported JORC resource of 1.4 billion metric tons (mt) of surface mineable hard coking and thermal coal. Angol believes that as much as 6 to 9 million mt/y could be exported.

“The acquisition of a majority interest in Revuboè is in line with our strategic commitment to grow our global metallurgical coal business to supply our customers from each of the key metallurgical coal supply regions of Australia, Canada and Mozambique,” said Cynthia Carroll, CEO, Anglo American. “Revuboè is located in the most attractive area of Mozambique’s Moatize coal basin and has a number of infrastructure development options.”

The transaction is subject to a number of conditions and is expected to be completed during the third quarter of 2012.