The additional coal leases, dubbed Vista Extension, are located on the northwest boundary of Vista and bring the company’s total land position in the Hinton region to about 55,000ha.

Coalspur said the new leases were expected to contain the same export quality bituminous thermal coal predicted for Vista.

A portion of Vista Extension includes 5.1 million tonnes of surface mineable coal, according to Coalspur managing director Gene Wusaty.

Wusaty said the transaction would provide significant benefits to the company, with the potential to provide further production growth through an underground operation which could leverage off of any future infrastructure built on Vista.

“We believe Vista Extension hosts substantial coal resources and we will commence a drilling program in the coming months to further our understanding of the property,” he said.

The Vista project has the potential to produce 11.2Mt of coal per annum.

The development of Vista will be split into two phases, with phase 1 scheduled to begin in 2015, producing 5Mtpa.