Andrew Burrell From:The Australian August 09, 201212:00AM
GINA Rinehart may have offloaded the bulk of her coal assets last year to India's GVK Group for $1.26 billion, but the billionaire is hardly shying away from investing in the sector despite the slumping price of the commodity.
A Galilee Basin explorer, Cuesta Coal, yesterday announced a $3 million deal with Mrs Rinehart's wholly owned Queensland Coal Investments over two tenement applications covering more than 1000sq km in the eastern part of the basin.
The agreement means Mrs Rinehart has now signed joint ventures with three listed coal hopefuls in the past four months and each involves almost identical terms: the Rinehart company stumps up $3m to fund exploration in exchange for an interest of up to 51 per cent in the early stage project.
The other Queensland joint ventures were struck with Tiaro Coal in April and International Coal in June.
Mrs Rinehart's string of recent deals also highlights how active an investor she has become in addition to her multi-billion-dollar interests in the Pilbara iron ore industry and her controversial stakes in Fairfax Media and Ten Network.
Cuesta Coal chief operating officer Keith McKnight said yesterday Mrs Rinehart saw value in the coal sector and QCI appeared to have adopted a strategy of investing in early stage projects that could allow it to gain access to proposed future infrastructure in the region.
COK Price at posting:
15.5¢ Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held
