White Energy raises US$17.61m to fund coal briquetting project

Australian company White Energy Company Limited announced Wednesday it had completed shares placement to raise a total capital of A$23.024 million or about US$17.61 million.

White Energy said the capital would be used to further expand its presence in the growing Asian coal producing markets, particularly the exploitation of massive sub-bituminous coal reserves in Indonesia and China.

White Energy has signed a deal with PT Bayan Resources to set up a joint venture to build a coal briquetting plant in Indonesia with an initial capacity of 1 million tons per annum using coal from Bayan's Tabang mine in East Kalimantan.

?The recent capital raising enables White to fund its portion of the construction of the first commercial plant undertaken with its joint venture partner Bayan Resources and at the same time advance its joint venture discussions with Itochu Corporation of Japan and other strategic parties,? White Energy Managing Director, John Atkinson, said in a statement.

Atkinson added that the Bayan joint venture is expected to be commercialized in the second half of 2007.

Based on the trial, White Energy?s coal briquetting technology could improve the energy content of the coal produced from 4,200 kilocalorie per kilogram (kcal/kg) to 6,500 kcal/kg. (Robert)