Aquila said this morning it had been offered the capacity by North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation but the deal was subject to completion of the contracts in the first quarter of 2010.

The company said the offer was “particularly pleasing” given the level of competition for planned future export infrastructure facilities in Northern Queensland.

Equally owned by Aquila and Vale, the Eagle Downs hard coking coal project is located 7km south of the Isaac Plains coal mine in Queensland’s Bowen Basin.

The project is at definitive feasibility study stage and subject to joint venture and statutory approvals.

The mine is scheduled to start development in 2012 with the first longwall to begin producing in 2014.

A single longwall producing up to 4.6 million tonnes per annum has been proposed with the possibility of expansion to two longwalls producing up to 8Mtpa.

The joint venture partners plan to spend $A977 million on the project with operating costs of $73 per tonne, excluding state royalties.

Annual EBITDA for the project is forecast at $350 million at 4Mtpa using current hard coking coal contract prices and an exchange rate of US75c.

Aquila was trading up 1.11% mid-morning today at $A9.10.