The deal is based on a binding term sheet struck with mine owner Zedemar Holdings in November.

At the time Coalbank said it needed to secure enough financing plus receive Foreign Investment Review Board approval to complete the Ebenezer transaction.

Last week both parties agreed to a time extension until February 18 with Coalbank saying it was required to satisfy the conditions under the terms sheet.

Coalbank has offered to acquire the mine with for $10 million offer plus agreed to pay Zedemar a royalty of $1 per saleable tonne of coal produced from the two Ebenezer mining licences with this capped at 20 million tonnes ($20 million).

“Should the company be able to satisfactorily complete the transaction, it would look to bring the mine back into operation at the earliest economic opportunity,” Coalbank chairman Anthony Chan said at the annual general meeting in November.

OGL Resources was last interested in buying this mine from privately owned Zedemar, but two landowners stymied that deal from being completed through various legal challenges to an Ebenezer mining licence renewal.

The last appeal to the High Court of Australia was rejected in February.

“The acquisition agreements the company had entered into and that had been the focus of the company’s expenditure from May 2011 has lapsed,” OGL later said in its 2013 annual report.

“The company is currently reviewing its position regarding this project.”

The mine, which was put on care and maintenance during the low coal price times of 2003, has 13.7Mt of probable reserves and 308.2Mt of resources, with most of it inferred (284.1Mt).

Coalbank said the coal quality was of a high grade thermal coal, with energy values of about 6700 kilocalories per kilogram.

Australia-listed Coalbank was partially acquired (62.34%) by Hong Kong-based Loyal Strategic Investment a year ago.