June 05, 2013 08:45 ET
Prophecy Coal Corp.: Chandgana Coal Project Signs 25 Year Coal Off-take Agreement
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - June 5, 2013) - Prophecy Coal Corp. ("Prophecy") (TSX:PCY)(OTCQX:PRPCF)(FRANKFURT:1P2) is pleased to announce the signing of a Coal Supply Agreement ("CSA") between Chandgana Coal LLC ("Chandgana Coal") and Prophecy Power Generation LLC ("PPG"), which is developing the 600MW mine mouth Chandgana power plant project ("The Project").
Chandgana Coal and PPG are both wholly owned subsidiaries of Prophecy, a Canadian company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. If Prophecy is successful in obtaining power plant project financing with debt and equity partners, Prophecy is expected to retain various ownerships of PPG and Chandgana Coal.
As per the CSA, Chandgana Coal will supply 3.6 million tonnes of coal annually, at a price of USD17.70 per tonne for a period of 25 years. The CSA coal price is competitive to Mongolian domestic thermal coal prices and is subject to annual indexing on based on the USA CPI Index, Mongolian Wage Index and Mongolian Diesel Price Index. PPG has committed to purchase a minimum of 2 million tonnes on a "take or pay" basis, with customary breakup fees payable by PPG. The CS A's coal delivery date is anticipated to be in the second half of 2016, subject to PPG signing a Power Purchase Agreement, obtaining all necessary governmental approvals, and project financing.
The signing of the CSA marks the accomplishment of another key project milestone. Besides a bankable Power Purchase Agreement ("PPA"), stable and guaranteed fuel supply is required to obtain project financing from equity partners and banks.
The CSA has been approved by Prophecy's independent directors, who after studying various coal supply options to the proposed Chandgana power plant project concluded that the coal supply from Chandgana Coal, with existing licenses to mine the coal from Chandgana Tal project adjacent to the proposed Power Plant site, represents a practical and cost effective solution to meet commissioning of a power plant targeted for 2016.
For Chandgana Coal, the CSA secures a long-term next-door customer on attractive and extended terms that will provide stable cash flow returns throughout the first 25 years of the mine.
The Chandgana Tal mining licenses contain an estimated 124 million tonnes of coal resources, all in the measured category. The average in-place gross calorific value is 3,306 kcal/kg of coal. The mine will be a surface open pit mine and will be located approximately 2 km from the proposed power plant site. The average waste to ore strip ratio is estimated to be 0.70:1 over the life of the mine.
In November 2012, Prophecy received a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) on its Chandgana Tal coal mining licenses prepared by John T Boyd Co. The independent PEA study reports that the Chandgana Coal project will produce a 36% IRR, 4 years pay-back period on USD 31 million initial capital invested and USD70.5 million Net Present Value (NPV) at 10% discount rate on a pre-tax basis. Total cash cost per tonne of coal production is estimated to be USD12.63 as per the PEA.
Qualified Person
Mr. Christopher Kravits, LPG, CPG, is a qualified person as defined under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"). Mr. Kravits is not considered independent of Prophecy Coal given the large extent that his professional time is dedicated solely to, and his position as Manager of Mining with Prophecy Coal Corp. Mr. Kravits has reviewed and approved the technical and scientific disclosure within this news release.
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