"Exergen ran off to the next spot, down the road which holds a...

"Exergen ran off to the next spot, down the road which holds a whole lot of crap brown coal but still near enough to Hastings."

Might need to check your geography there, as BM is on the other side of Melb from Hastings. Dried BM coal will be transported by rail to Geelong as the line runs through Mantle's tentement at BM. The coal that Exergen dries from the LV will be slurried and piped to Hastings.

For esi to move any BCE pellets from the LV for export, it will require the Victorian govenment to build a rail line from scratch approximately 200km from LV to the Port of Hastings. This will take not only some convincing but also billions of dollars and several years. I think the existing rail would have been an appealling factor for Exergen before signing a JV with Mantle Mining.

Upgrade work on the BM line (to the tune of $4B i think) has begun and coincidentally it is being carried out by one of Exergen's partners. It all seems to be falling into place very well for Mantle and Exergen.

best wishes