Talbot's company – Talbot Group Holdings – bought the stake in Riversdale over the period of May 21–27 for an average price of $A9.38.

Talbot, who was this week named in BRW's Rich 200 list with a fortune of $913 million, shelled out $103.7 million for the stake.

Riversdale holds a 74% stake in the Zululand Anthracite Colliery in South Africa. Last year the mine produced almost 800,000 ROM tonnes.

It also holds exploration tenements covering 290,000 hectares in Mozambique. Last month it announced a JORC-compliant inferred resource at its Benga tenement, held in a joint venture with Tata Steel of India, of almost 1.94 billion tonnes.

Riversdale closed up 7.9% at $10.52 on Thursday.