Mongolian Mining Said Near $465 Million Purchase of Mine

June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Mongolian Mining Corp., the nation’s biggest coking coal exporter, is close to buying a Mongolian mine from a unit of Kerry Holdings Ltd. for $465 million, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

Mongolian Mining plans to pay about $380 million in cash and issue $85 million of convertible bonds, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deal hasn’t been announced. The QGX coking coal mine, bought by a unit of Kerry Holdings in 2008, is adjacent to one already owned by Mongolian Mining, the people said.

Prices for coking coal, one of two key steelmaking raw ingredients, rose to a record in the first quarter, boosting appetite for mergers and acquisitions. Rio Tinto Group in April won control of Mozambique developer Riversdale Mining Ltd. following a A$3.9 billion ($4.2 billion) offer in December.

An announcement may come as soon as today, said the people. Calls to Mongolian Mining and Kerry Holdings after regular business hours weren’t returned.

Mongolian Mining, based in Ulaanbaatar, raised about $750 million in an initial public offering in October. The company said in its IPO prospectus that it was Mongolia’s biggest exporter of coking coal in the first half of 2010.

It plans to raise production to 15 million metric tons a year by 2013 to meet increasing demand for the raw material from China’s steelmakers, Chief Executive Officer Battsengel Gotov said in September.

Australian Floods

Asian steelmakers may pay as much as 8 percent less for hard coking coal next quarter as Australian supplies recover from disruptions caused by heavy rain and flooding in the world’s biggest exporter of the commodity.

Australian free-on-board prices may drop to $305 a ton for three-month contracts starting July 1, according to the median estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News last month. Forecasts ranged from $280 to $330 a ton.

Japan’s Kobe Steel Ltd. agreed to pay Rio a record $330 a ton for the quarter starting April 1. The talks ended before a magnitude-9 earthquake in the Asian nation halted some steel output.

Mongolian Mining operates at Tavan Tolgoi, near the border with China. The Tavan Tolgoi deposit is one of the world’s largest unexploited reserves of coking coal.

--With assistance from Jesse Riseborough in London Editors: John Viljoen, Tony Barrett

To contact the reporter on this story: Cathy Chan in Hong Kong at kchan14@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jennifer Sondag at jsondag@bloomberg.net

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