Anthracite might sell for 100% more than Coking Coal... but only...

Anthracite might sell for 100% more than Coking Coal... but only if you have a buyer.

Previous management tried to flog Groundhog anthracite for years, but despite all the apparent potential off-take partners, MOUs and interest in the data room (I now doubt there was any serious interest), they didn't sell naff all.

Like you mention, Groundhog is going to take a significant amount of cash to develop. Seriously deep pockets are required (hence why the JOGMEC partnership makes sense). But the market for anthracite, at least in steel making, has proved to be much narrower than that of coking coal, so in reality there's probably only a few players in Asia that could justify the capex required for the development. The likes of Nippon or Sumitomo or the few others this applies to are sufficiently conservative that they wouldn’t stump up cash to get involved in a project as immature as Groundhog. I believe this would change very quickly if Atrum could somehow finance/prove the initial stages of the project. But they butchered their reputation, cash and investor partnerships in their previous Groundhog attempts, so instead the grand plans lay gathering dust.

Anthracites long term economics make Groundhogs development inevitable in my view. But realistically it could be a decade away.