Announced on Friday, the deal gives EastCoal 100% of the charter capital as well as 100% of the coal mine.

EastCoal will pay Aponet $2 million in cash upon the share transfer and will issue four million shares within 20 days of the transaction’s closing date.

It will also issue warrants for an extra four million shares at 70c per share over two years post-closing.

Finally, the company will pay more than $5.8 million in Inter-Invest debt to Torgovy Dom Krasnoluchugol.

Closing is expected in late May and hinges upon an approval of the Anti-Monopoly Committee of Ukraine as well as final approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange Venture Exchange.

“We are very pleased to have finalized the purchase of the Menzhinksy mine and we are looking forward to working with the Inter-Invest management team,” chairman John Byrne said.

“This acquisition is a significant step forward for EastCoal in executing our strategy of building a multi-million, low-cost, high-quality coal producer in Ukraine.”

Last month, company officials confirmed that Menzhinsky was expected to yield 641,250 tonnes of coal and generate a net cash flow of $38 million in its first five years.

The operation, which was said to have a net present value of $316 million, contains JORC-compliant coal resources of 40.7 million tonnes.

At the time, Byrne said the coking coal mine’s proposed expansion might divert equipment originally intended for the company’s flagship Verticalnaya project, which is also situated in Ukraine’s easterly Lugansk region.

Verticalnaya is an anthracite project 100% owned by EastCoal.

A change in the guard for EastCoal

In related EastCoal news, the company announced on Friday that director Abraham Jonker had been appointed president of the company while president Byrne would remain chairman.

Jonker joined the company in July 2011, while Byrne stepped up to the president seat last April.

Rand Afrikaans University graduate Jonker has17 years of extensive accounting and corporate finance experience, mostly in the mining industry.

In addition to serving as a mining consultant in Africa, he spent time with Mwana Africa and in the finance department of Anglo American and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

He was previously chief financial officer of both Cambrian Mining and Western Coal.

Jonker is currently the interim chairman of the board for Mandalay Resources, president and chief executive officer of Canada Coal and a non-executive director of Firestone Diamonds.

George Lawton has also been appointed EastCoal CFO and corporate secretary.

He replaces Kim Evans, who has served in the seat since November 2007.

Lawton, with a background of financial and operating leadership to the mining, aerospace, entertainment and business services industries, has been a company consultant since last May.