WEC White Energy Company Limited

White Energy Company Limited (ASX: WEC) today announced the completion of construction of the Company�s commercial scale production plant at Cessnock, New South Wales. The Cessnock Plant, which utilises White Energy�s licensed binderless coal briquetting technology, to upgrade lower rank coal to significantly increase its energy efficiency, has an installed capacity of 90,000 tonnes per annum. The Cessnock Plant was completed on schedule and in line with budget estimates. White Energy�s internal commissioning team has taken over the Plant and has begun the cold commissioning phase, which involves the testing of the various components of the Plant. This will be followed by a hot commissioning program which will involve the processing of significant quantities of feedstock coal to ensure the optimal functioning of the Plant. It is envisaged that the commissioning phases will conclude in approximately six weeks at which point the Cessnock Plant will be in full production mode. White Energy�s Managing Director, Mr John Atkinson says �The completion of White Energy�s first commercial production plant represents a significant milestone for the Company. �We are delighted that the Cessnock Plant has been built on time and on budget. It is obviously an exciting time for the Company to now have an operating facility available to upgrade coal for commercial and developmental purposes. But just as exciting is the fact that we will soon be processing coal for power companies to use to conduct combustion tests and trial burns some months in advance of what was originally forecast. � The Cessnock Plant is White Energy�s premier production, testing and showcase facility in Australia. The Plant uses White Energy�s licensed and patented process to upgrade sub-bituminous coal into a higher energy, more stable, cleaner burning coal briquette. The upgraded product can be transported and handled like normal coal, but has significant transportation cost benefits, combustion advantages and, importantly, is a cleaner fuel from an emissions perspective when compared to the burning of traditional thermal coal. The design and construction of the Cessnock Plant, is representative of the design and construction process required for the one million tonne per annum commercial plant currently being built by White Energy, in joint venture with Bayan International Pte Ltd, at Tabang, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. The successful completion of construction of the Cessnock Plant has provided invaluable practical experience for the Company ahead of building its one million tonne per annum plant at the Tabang mine in Indonesia. The Cessnock Plant will also be used for continued development purposes and will be an important research and training facility for the Company. White Energy will also be able to train its commissioning teams at the Cessnock Plant in preparation for the commissioning of plants planned to be built by the company in Indonesia, China and the United States of America during 2009. Prior to the completion of the Cessnock Plant, White Energy had secured joint venture arrangements to construct plants with over 13MTPA of installed capacity. The company expects that the completion of the Cessnock Plant will generate further strong interest and demand from overseas customers in Indonesia, China, USA and Africa, including large international mining and investment houses, wishing to partner with White Energy to construct plants using White Energy�s technology. White Energy has received continued strong support for it�s cleaner coal upgrading technology from both the New South Wales and Commonwealth Governments. In early May, during the final stages of construction of the Plant, Senator the Hon Penny Wong, Minister for Climate Change and Water and the Hon. Joel Fitzgibbon MP, Minister of Defence and the Federal Member for Hunter, visited White Energy�s Cessnock Plant. Following this visit, Mr Fitzgibbon said, �White Energy is to be congratulated on its commitment to cleaner coal initiatives. �The completion of construction of White Energy�s cleaner coal production plant at Cessnock, highlights the importance of the Hunter region in supporting cleaner coal initiatives and how the region is playing a pivotal role in Australia�s future energy policy.� Government support of White Energy�s commercialisation of its technology also included White Energy receiving a A$4.35 million grant from the Commonwealth Government through AusIndustry�s Commercial Ready innovation grant program specifically for assisting the Company to build the Cessnock Plant. About White Energy White Energy is the exclusive worldwide license holder of the Binderless Coal Briquetting process that upgrades relatively poor quality coal to significantly increase its energy efficiency. The process was developed by CSIRO in conjunction with TraDet Inc, K.R. Komarek Inc and The Griffin Coal Mining Company Pty Ltd. The patented process involves the crushing, drying and briquetting of high moisture coals, resulting in the reduction of the moisture content of the coal and converting the product into a higher energy content, stable briquette. The advantages of the White Energy process involve creating a higher energy value coal, creating a physically and chemically stable product, significantly reducing coal transportation costs and creating a higher energy value release with lower carbon emissions. The process has been shown to be cost and operationally superior to competing technologies. The White Energy technology also represents a first step in building a cleaner coal solution. White Energy�s process is an important first step � an evolutionary process that speeds the maturation of lower grade coals. White Energy is committed to delivering cleaner coal technologies with a view to ultimately achieving zero emission targets. White Energy is in the process of commercialising this technology and is currently constructing a commercial one million tonne per annum plant in Indonesia in joint venture with Bayan Resources. The Company also has a joint venture agreement with Adaro Group, one of Indonesia�s largest coal companies and Itochu Corporation, a major Japanese trading house respectively, to build additional coal upgrading plants in Indonesia. Further, White Energy has also signed a Heads of Agreement with Datang International Power Generation Company in relation to the development of coal upgrading plants in China. Most recently, the Company has entered into a development agreement with NRG Energy and Buckskin Mining in respect of a potential project in USA. In addition to these projects, the company is actively pursuing opportunities to deploy its technology across various markets including Indonesia, China, India, Mongolia, Africa and the USA. This press release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements include information about possible or assumed future results of our business, financial condition, liquidity, results of operations, plans and objectives. In some cases, you may identify forward-looking statements by words such as "may," "should," "plan," "intend," "potential," "continue," "believe," "expect," "predict," "anticipate" and "estimate," the negative of these words or other comparable words. These statements are only predictions. One should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements are qualified by their terms and/or important factors, many of which are outside the Company's control, involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from the statements made. The forward-looking statements are based on the Company's beliefs, assumptions and expectations of our future performance, taking into account information currently available to the Company. These beliefs, assumptions and expectations can change as a result of many possible events or factors, including those events and factors described in "Risk Factors" in the prospectus, not all of which are known to the Company. Neither the Company nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of these statements. The Company will update the information in this press release only to the extent required under applicable securities laws. If a change occurs, the Company's business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations may vary materially from those expressed in the aforementioned forward-looking statements.