Orano warns of financial problems at Niger uranium plant
The West African nation increasingly seeks new partners, such as Russia, in its mining sector.
ST. LOUIS, Dec. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU) today announced that it has completed the acquisition of all outstanding shares in Macarthur Coal Limited and holds 100 percent of the company. Peabody has notified the Australian Securities Exchange to delist Macarthur.
Peabody’s pro forma Australia sales including the acquisition volumes were 32 million tons in 2010. Pro forma sales are targeted to grow to 45 to 50 million tons by 2014 to 2015, including 22 to 25 million tons of metallurgical coal, which places Peabody Energy among the top tier of global met coal producers.
“The Macarthur purchase advances Peabody’s strategy of expanding our global platform to serve major global demand centers and raising our contribution from higher-margin international assets,” said Peabody Chairman and Chief Executive OfficerGregory H. Boyce. “Our focus now is on driving integration and operations improvement and completing expansion projects.”
Macarthur has a number of mine development and infrastructure projects under way in addition to its existing Coppabella and Moorvale mines.
Peabodyhas established cross-functional teams to realize synergies through blending, sales and marketing, purchasing, infrastructure and capital project development.
Peabody Energy is the world’s largest private-sector coal company and a global leader in clean coal solutions. With 2010 sales of 246 million tons and nearly $7 billion in revenues, Peabodyfuels 10 percent of U.S. power and 2 percent of worldwide electricity.
Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on numerous assumptions that the company believes are reasonable, but they are open to a wide range of uncertainties and business risks that may cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. These factors are difficult to accurately predict and may be beyond the company’s control. The company does not undertake to update its forward-looking statements. Factors that could affect results include those described in this press release as well as risks detailed in the company’s reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
