Hughenden might be costly to set up but imo there'll be no shortage of interest from India and China. They are buying now and planning well into the future.
August last year Indian company Adani paid $500M to LNC for their Galilee tenement of 7.8 billion tonnes, with another expected $2.5B in royalties for the 1st 20 years production ($2/tonne). The biggest ever deal between an Australian & Indian company.
Adani are expecting their EIS (Environmental Impact Study) to be finished in Jan/Feb 2012. They're estimating it will be the largest coal mine in Australia and one of the largest in the world, and expect to reach peak capacity by 2022 and be producing 60 million tonnes/year.
I used to have a map but can't find it now, but from memory Galilee looked pretty small compared to Hughenden. LNC are also expected to announce the sale of another tenement in the next couple of months, and they've had no shortage of interest for that either and the expectations are $1B+.
The Chinese & Indians have the demand for both thermal and coking coal, and Aus has the supply.
