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The investors set to take over the Illawarra's two remaining local coal mines aren't speculators, and are executing a black coal strategy that will score them another former BHP mine.
For M Resources owner Matt Latimore, the Illawarra purchase is the extension of a purchasing plan he has been pursuing across Queensland for more than a decade.
Shortly after the deal was announced, Mr Latimore has told Illawarra businesses and workers he understands the place coal occupies at Port Kembla and is a strong supporter of local suppliers.
"We will take the responsibilities that come with this acquisition extremely seriously," he told the Mercury on Thursday.
The high-profile coal marketer made his fortune with miner Stanmore Resources and then M Resources, which now has several officers worldwide and various ownership stakes in coal mines across Queensland and into NSW.
Golden Energy and Resources, the Singapore-based company partnering with M Resources to buy IMC, is the majority shareholder in Stanmore Resources, among other projects.
Mr Latimore is making a habit of buying metallurgical coal mines, taking advantage of a market without many buyers, and believing conditions will stay favourable for 10-20 years - long enough for the mines to more than pay off their ticket price.
Mr Latimore, who has a stable of Ferraris that has featured in collectors' pages, and who financial press estimates has a net worth around $450 million, is taking advantage of a market for steelmaking coal that has risen since Russian coal supply stopped after the invasion of Ukraine.
"Our investment today is a vote of confidence in the future of Australian coal for steel making," Mr Latimore said.
"The M Resources and GEAR partnership continues to make great strides in building an enviable portfolio of mining and infrastructure assets on the Australian east coast.
"We look forward to engaging with the communities of the Illawarra that support the Appin and Dendrobium mines.
"M Resources is a strong advocate for engaging local suppliers and supporting the communities who support our operations.
"Port Kembla is an international hub for the export and supply of Australian metallurgical coal to our country's most important trading partners and friends. We will take the responsibilities that come with this acquisition extremely seriously."
With brown (thermal) coal on the nose as a fuel to generate electricity, Mr Latimore sees opportunities for black (metallurgical) coal mines, particularly as some companies want to end their association with fossil fuels.
Mr Latimore doesn't appear to be a climate sceptic - more that he sees steelmaking coal will still be in demand for a decade or more, and sees the opportunity to buy coal assets as their owners are seeking to get out.
The strategy banks on metallurgical coal being necessary for 10-20 more years, to make the steel required for energy infrastructure as the world transitions to renewables.
"Metallurgical coal continues to be central to the global energy transition story," Mr Latimore said.
"Coal for steelmaking is critical to the supply of EVs, solar and wind power, as well as building new transmission lines and capacity critical to electrification."
These views fit with the position of IMC major customer BlueScope, which plans to keep using coal for its blast furnaces for the foreseeable future.
This plan is aided by Mr Latimore's company handling the sales and marketing and the 2023 purchase of One Rail's east coast haulage assets, to get the coal to ports.
Transport will be the easy part of the Illawarra purchase, where mines are much closer to the export terminals than in Queensland.
BlueScope has a veto option on IMC purchasers, but that would require the steelmaker to purchase the Dendrobium and Appin mines itself.
Since BlueScope and South32 were both spun out of BHP after its demerger from Billiton, a recoupling of the corporate siblings has not so far appeared likely.
BlueScope has the money, as recent results indicate, but after a decade spent reshaping itself as a leaner, profitable operation, it would be a significant shift in strategy to take on a coal mine.
It has not previously shown interest in taking the course of steelmaking rival Liberty/GFG Alliance, which owns mines for the materials and steelworks for production at Whyalla.
It's clear Mr Latimore's group has both the money, and a coherent plan that has been playing out across Queensland's black coal mines and into NSW.
So perhaps the question is: would a Ferrari 458 Speciale have enough clearance to handle the bumps on Mt Kembla Rd near Dendrobium?