ANGLO AMERICAN TO SELL OFF QUEENSLAND MINES

Global mining company, Anglo American has announced that it will sell all metallurgical coal mines in Queensland.

The mines that are up for sale are the Moranbah North and Grosvenor Mines, along with the Moranbah South development project, the Grasstree, and the Capcoal mines.

The company said that they would "be managed to further improve performance, and we will consider options for exit at the appropriate time".

The company announced that there were plane for a massive restructure in order to remove all its debt.

The plans hope to remove as much as $10 billion of debt by the end of 2016, and making $3-4 billion in asset sales.

Anglo American’s coal chief executive officer Seamus French released a statement saying the three Moranbah assets would be sold as a package.

"We have already announced the intention to sell a number of the Australian assets including Callide, Dartbrook, Dawson, and Foxleigh — some of which already have conditional sales agreed," he said.

"The remaining assets are now being evaluated for buyer interest.

"We will follow the usual sale process and it is our aim to sell the assets as going concerns to have minimal impact on our workforce."

The New South Wales assets will also be part of the divestment program.

Anglo Amerincan has said that there were discussions o assess the value of all the assets, adding that this process could take “several months”

A demand for metallurgical coal from China has sharply fallen as the country consumes less steel than during its fastest growth a few years ago.