According to Bloomberg, Drummond – which owns mining complexes in the US as well as Colombia – has held preliminary discussions with privately held Riverstone Holdings and First Reserve for a stake sale.
It is also still evaluating a sale of its entire Colombian business unit, reportedly worth more than $US6 billion.
The news wire quoted an anonymous source who said the company expected to make a decision in the next few weeks.
Xstrata and Glencore are both said to be interested in the assets, while Vale had shown interest but is no longer involved in talks.
Drummond said in July that it was considering a partner to help improve its capital access as it expanded both port capacity and production output. One scenario under consideration is a significant expansion to the annual capacity of its El Descanso operation to 25 million tonnes in the next three years.
Drummond did not make public comment on the announcement Thursday.
The producer’s only US operation is Shoal Creek, which utilizes continuous mining and longwall methods. Drummond has had a presence in Colombia since the 1980s, where its assets include the Pribbenow and El Descanso mines as well as the Dupela deepwater ocean port.
According to the 2010 BP Statistical Energy Survey, Colombia produced 72.1Mt coal in 2009, 1.37% of the world total. Its reserves make up just 0.82% of the world total, but are the second-largest reserves in South America behind Brazil.
Colombia has an estimated 24 billion tonnes of proven and potential coal reserves.
