“Despite the current financial problems with international markets, China still needs good quality thermal and coking coal. We are working very closely with our regulators in order to complete the acquisition,” Xinwen subsidiary chairman Chen Jie said in a letter to Linc.

Jie added that Xinwen was happy with the quality and quantity of coal at the Emerald tenement.

Since signing the deal to sell the tenements, Linc has upgraded the resource to 852 million tonnes inferred, well above the 470Mt exploration target first identified.

Within the inferred resource, Linc has identified 200Mt of open cut mineable coal.

“When Linc Energy first agreed to sell Emerald, it was on the basis of a price of approximately $A3.19 per tonne in ground,” Linc chief executive Peter Bond said.

“With additional drilling by Linc, this has nearly doubled the size of the asset and subsequently the in-ground price has gone down to approximately $1.75 per tonne.

“On top of this, Linc Energy has now identified a 200 million tonne open cut minable area which, in my opinion, is an outstanding mine location. There simply are not many new open cut coking and thermal coal deposits available of this quality and size.

“In addition, with the slide of the Australian dollar, Xinwen are gaining another 30 per cent reduction in real cost terms, making the Emerald tenements an extraordinary coking and thermal coal asset at a price much lower than what would have been paid just two or three months ago, and in reality representing what anyone will need to pay now and in the immediate future.

“Let’s face it, good coking coal is the ‘waterfront property’ of the resources sector and Emerald remains a fantastic opportunity for any buyer; which probably explains why Linc Energy has received so many additional queries from other groups which are looking to pursue a potential purchase of Emerald every month.”

The company expects the deal to be finalised by Christmas.

Linc closed up 3.25% on Tuesday at $A2.86.