The merged company will be chaired by Yancoal parent company Yanzhou Coal chairman and chief executive officer Weimin Li.

Yanzhou’s Cunliang Lai and current Gloucester chairman James MacKenzie will share the role of vice-chairman.

In total there will be six Yanzhou appointed directors and five independent directors.

Current Gloucester MD Brendan McPherson will become a special advisor to the merged group.

“The experience and high calibre of the directors will be a significant asset to the merged company and its shareholders,” MacKenzie told shareholders.

“The experience of the management team across both entities will be instrumental in the execution of the significant growth plans for the company.

“The merged company will have significant scale, initially producing more than 12 million tonnes per annum of coal.”

Bailey was appointed MD of Yancoal Australia in September 2010, having previously held the role of chief operations officer for New Hope Corporation.

Prior to his role at New Hope he was the executive general manager of the Wesfarmers Curragh mine in Queensland, where he managed the $390 million expansion of Curragh to incorporate the Curragh North deposit.

He was an inaugural director of Blackwater International Coal Centre, a not-for-profit organisation set up in 2006 to finance, build and operate the $9.5 million BICC to showcase the coal mining industry.

Prior to his role with Wesfarmers, he was employed in executive roles with US-based international mining equipment manufacturer and distributor P&H MinePro Services and prior to that with Shell Coal International in London.

Bailey has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Newcastle in Australia and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

In addition to his role as Yancoal Australia MD, he is also a director of Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group, an alternate director of Wiggins Island Export Coal Terminal and is a casual member of the executive committee of the NSW Minerals Council.

MacKenzie said with a resource base of approximately 3.5 billion tonnes of coal and reserves of almost 700Mt, the merged group would have a solid foundation to expand its operations for the next 40 years and beyond.

The merged group expects to grow its production from 12Mt today to between 25 and 33Mtpa by 2016.