The consortium has been active in a number of sales processes that are currently ongoing for the sale of metallurgical coal assets in both Australia and Mongolia, it said in its March quarterly statement.

“There are major structural shifts occurring in the metallurgical coal industry at present with the larger companies that participated in the consolidation of the industry by using cheap access to debt are now significantly weakened,” it said.

“Given this consolidation was occurring through 2008 to 2012, a lot of this debt is maturing so even companies with quality assets are weighed down by these financial burdens.

“All the largest players in the US coal industry are now in bankruptcy protection administration. The major diversified miners with exposure to coking coal (other than BHP Billiton) are actively seeking to exit the industry.

“In this environment and given the company’s view that metallurgical coal prices have formed a base, the company has been reviewing acquisition opportunities for existing and near production coking coal projects both in Australia and Mongolia.”

The company has formed a consortium with Asian based funders to access these opportunities, it said.

Significant reductions in staff at the company’s Perth and Ulaanbaatar offices have been made in January 2016 with the completion of Nuurstei exploration activity and while awaiting the company’s rail subsidiary, Northern Railways, securing additional funding to complete the rail feasibility study and other pre-development activities.