Coal of Africa Ltd (CZA.LN), a coal mining and development company operating in South Africa, said Thursday it and its wholly owned subsidiary Regulus Investment Ltd have entered into an exchange of prospecting rights agreement with Kwezi Mining and Exploration Ltd and Chapudi Coal Ltd, joint venture companies held by the Rio Tinto Group (RTP) and the Kwezi Group of South Africa.

MAIN FACTS:

-Agreement for exchange of prospecting rights signed

-Creation of contiguous Makhado project of more than 20km strike length opencast coking coal mining

-Considerable mining synergies and uplift in operational economics

-Consideration payable by Regulus to Chapudi will include premium of ZAR12,500,000

-Terms of joint venture agreement with Rio Tinto Group over other Limpopo farms being negotiated

-It is proposed that Chapudi will be the operator of the JV

-Farm swap agreement

-Rationalisation of farms owned by Chapudi, Kwezi and CoAL provides significant benefits in bringing collective properties into commercial production.

 
-By London Bureau, Dow Jones Newswires; Contact Ian Walker; +44 (0)20 7842 9296; ian.walker@dowjones.com