Hopes are high that the pre-Christmas deal that would see...

Hopes are high that the pre-Christmas deal that would see low-profile Queensland billionaire Chris Wallin emerge as a major shareholder in Carabella Resources could bring further cheer to the junior miner in the future.

Carabella agreed to issue Wallin with 10 million options exercisable at 50¢ in return for the right to due diligence on ground adjacent to its Bluff tenement. It can then purchase the ground for staged share payments totalling $9.4 million.

Ultimately, the deal would make Wallin, a geologist worth $3.8 billion, the company’s single largest shareholder with a 13.3 per cent interest in Carabella. That would overshadow Colonial First State’s 8.5 per cent holding – and that’s before the exercise of options.

Wallin is the owner of QCoal, which owns the Sonoma mine in the Bowen Basin that produces up to 4 million tonnes a year, having last year bought out partner Cliffs Natural Resources for $141 million of cash.

The question for Carabella investors is how to interpret his involvement with the publicly-listed coal hopeful. In that vein, one theory doing the rounds is that the recent deal could be only the start of a fruitful relationship between the pair.