Mongolia-focused Aspire has inked two memorandum of understanding agreements with two “large Russian” coking coal end users for purchasing up to 1.3 million tonnes per annum from its Ovoot project.

The explorer separately struck an MoU for 2Mtpa of rail and port capacity through Russia’s far east coast at “competitive tariffs”.

Overall, the non-binding offtake agreements so far total 6.9Mtpa of coal, with Aspire’s project in the Ovoot Basin targeting first production of 5Mtpa in 2017.

Coal of Africa is continuing its non-core asset divestments program.

South African government regulatory approval is needed to finalise the sale of its Woestaleen complex and Opgedoenhoop property for a combined $US9.95 million in cash, with the proceeds to be used for working capital.

Separately Coal of Africa struck a deal to swap its shareholding in local company Lemur Resources to AIM-listed Bushveld Minerals.

“The company is in the process of exploring options to monetise this asset,” Coal of Africa said.

The South African player aims to secure funding and regulatory approvals for its Makhado project in the country, which is targeting 2.3Mtpa of hard coking coal and 3.2Mtpa of thermal coal, by the end of September 2014.

Over to Queensland, MetroCoal company secretary Theo Psaros, a former COO of the Surat Basin explorer, has resigned.

MetroCoal non-executive director John Haley will take over the role.

Meanwhile, Canning Basin player Rey Resources, which is focused on petroleum opportunities in the Western Australian region since the thermal coal market downturn, has appointed Jin Wei as a non-executive director.

Wei is from the cornerstone investor Crystal Yield Investments, which has a 19.9% stake of Rey.