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The original deal was announced back in August with Electric Power Development (J-Power) and EDF Trading for $A125 million and $US120 million respectively for each of their 7.5% stakes.
Under the completed agreement EDFT will pay the $US120 million in three tranches over the next three calendar years and will also chip in for its 7.5% share of development costs from January 1, 2008.
J-Power will settle the $A125 million in two tranches, with the first expected to occur later this month and the amount to include the 7.5% share of development costs of Narrabri since January 1, 2008.
Whitehaven said the balance of the J-Power portion would be payable when the New South Wales government has given approval for Stage 2 of the Narrabri project.
Both agreements include a coal offtake contract for 1.5 million tonnes per annum over the life of the Narrabri North mine based on market prices.
In February, Whitehaven sold a 7.5% stake to China's Guangdong Yudean Group subsidiary Upper Horn Investments for $A67.5 million.
Whitehaven has sold a total of 22.5% of the project to outside partners.
“We are very pleased to conclude the EDFT transaction and to execute formal documentation for the J-Power transaction,” Whitehaven managing director Tony Haggarty said of the progress.
“For Whitehaven, the funds generated from the sale of 22.5 per cent in the Narrabri JV are sufficient to fund the majority of development costs for Stages 1 and 2 of the project.”
Haggarty said Stage 1 construction was well advanced and on track to produce first coal late next year.
“This is an important milestone in underwriting the development for the Narrabri project and in realising Whitehaven’s plans to grow saleable production capacity to more than 10 million tonnes per year by 2012,” he said.
The project is expected to start coal production in the second half of calendar 2009.
J-Power has over 25% of Japan’s coal-fired power generation capacity and imports around 20Mt per annum of thermal coal.
The EDF Group is a major European utility company.
Whitehaven shares last traded at $1.10.
