They're a dozy lot down at IC. Today they have a piece on the flotation of Asia Energy plc on AIM. Chunky coal deposits in Bangladesh. Market cap. expected to be about 30m.

What IC fails to notice is that CBM has a 55% stake in AE. 55% of 30m wd be 16.5m.

CBM's current total market cap at 63p is er... about 16m!!

So we get Western Canadian Coal (about to float on AIM), Pageton Coal in West Virginia, AGD Mining, Subranum Gold in Ghana, and CBM'z most recent acquisition Zhibek Resources (again planned to float on AIM in 2004) FOR NOTHING.

Fill your boots folks, this is set to double.

More on the strengh of Coking Coal,


Global coking coal prices set to go up - Report
Mr Steve Leer chairperson & CEO of Arch Coal Inc said that globally, coal prices are witnessing a significant spike, thanks to the growing steel demand and supply constraints. Coal, which is one of the major raw materials for producing steel, is already short of 25 million tonnes to 35 million tonnes in 2008 fiscal across the globe, which is likely to reach 70 million tonnes in 2009 fiscal.

According to Macquarie Bank Limited, coal production from Australia may decline by approximately 15 million tonnes or about 12% of Australia's annual exports in 2008 fiscal. Recent floods in Australia forced several coal producers to shut down their mines, resulting in a huge decline in coal output in the first quarter of 2008.

In addition, a power crisis faced in South Africa in January 2008 and thereafter a reduced power supply from Electricity Supply Commission resulted in a shutdown of several mines and forced coal producers to cut their output, which further decreased the coal production.

China plans to reduce exports of coal in 2008 fiscal, as it remains concerned with its domestic power needs, since two third of China's energy production depends on coal. Moreover, in order to curb the ever-increasing inflation rate and the over heated Chinese economy, the government of China raised its export tax for steel billets from 15 percent to 25%, effective from January 1st 2008, to reduce the inflow of funds.

This resulted in a tight global coal supply condition, leading to a hike in coal prices. While China's coal exports are expected to decline moderately, coal production capacity is expected to increase to 2.73 billion tons in 2008 fiscal, supported by expansion of coalmines and technical renovations to meet the growing demand from domestic market. Furthermore, with the steep increase in oil and gas prices, coal's importance in the world energy mix is set to increase in the future.

According to the International Energy Agency, there are abundance of coal resources of approximately 200 years worth of coal reserves, evenly distributed in the US with 27%, Russia with 17%, China with 13% and India with 10%. It is estimated that by 2030, coal will account for 27% of the global energy mix, up from the 24% that it holds today. Given the abundance and accessibility of coal resources, the increased usage of coal will facilitate minimizing the global energy crisis.

Going forward, the demand supply mismatch is expected to last for at least two to three years before it recovers from the supply bottlenecks in Australia and ease power shortages in South Africa. Hence, coal price outlook in 2009 fiscal is likely to remain strong with coking coal prices expected to increase to USD 320 a tonne and thermal coal to increase to USD 135 a tonne for 2009 coal year.
cyril

An article on the recent resuts of EGB a Welsh coal mining company of which XBM
have a 50% stake.

08:21GMT 24Sept2008-Energybuild soars after swings to pretax profit
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Shares in Energybuild Group jump over 10 percent to 21.5 pence after the
Welsh anthracite producer says it swings to full-year pretax profit of 954,000
pounds against a loss of 504,000 pounds the previous year.
Seymour Pierce, which notes the results are in line with its
expectations, says: 'Perhaps most importantly, the company met its three
key operational objectives for the year at Aberpergwm' underground mine.
'In the current high inflationary environment, it is also worth
noting that the budget for this work was not exceeded,' adds the broker.
'There is clearly the potential for the business to exceed our
expectations for the current year based on the potentially higher production
rate and we look forward to making upgrades once the various underground
development goals, planning permissions and construction targets have been
reached,' says the broker, which rates the company as 'buy' with
a 41 pence target price.
cyril

New York (Platts)--13th Oct2008

A major US producer has settled the majority of 2009 metallurgical coal
contracts with buyers of domestic steel makers at average prices above the
2008 benchmark of $300/metric ton for Australian hard coal.

Low-volatile premium coal settled around $300/short ton FOB mine, which is a
FOB port equivalent of about $380/mt, including transportation charges
estimated at $40/st, confirmed US mining executives.

Premium high-vol coking coal of 30-32 volatile matter was settled at
$260-$265/st while generic high-vol material with VM of more than 34 was
priced at $200-$220/st, said one source.

The contraction in economic output is expected to reduce steel demand, a
source at a major coking coal producer said last week.

The difference in prices between premium low-vol material and generic lower
quality high-vol coal is widening as increased coking coal production has led
to some coking coal companies accepting poorer quality materials and supply of
low-vol coal remains constrained, a mining executive said.

"The extra high-vol to meet demand has been the poorer quality," he said.
"We're expecting the differential between higher- and poor-quality coal to
widen."

About 75% of his company's domestic sales volume for 2009 has been contracted
already, with some tonnage priced based on multi-year contracts.

Buyers agreeing to higher prices

"It's probably too early to predict where those ranges will end up on the
seaborne side in 2009 since many buyers don't have contracts expiring until
the end of the first quarter of 2009," said one US met coal veteran. "However,
the strong signal coming out of the US is that prices for Appalachian-quality
hard coking coals are holding up very well.

"The vast majority [of buyers] are committing; some are holding back in
anticipation of economic events leading to lower prices," the US executive
said. "From now to the end of the year, domestic customers are still
scrambling for spot coal."

The prices miners have received come in the face of recent large declines in
steel prices for products and spot iron ore that some market sources say may
end up infecting the coking coal market and lead to lower term prices for
contracts starting in April 2009, under which the bulk of output is sold.

Last week, two commodity analysts cut forecasts for average coking coal prices
in 2009 and 2010 following upheaval in the global financial markets, a
stronger US dollar and weaker commodities demand from China. They predicted
the average yearly price for premium hard coking coal at $230-$250/mt FOB for
2009 and $190/mt FOB in 2010, down from $300-$305/mt forecast for 2008.

US miners at the end of 2007 settled coking coal term contracts for the 2008
calendar year with domestic customers at around $110/mt FOB mine before global
supply tightness led spot prices to surge.

Australia-based BHP Billiton-Mitsubishi Alliance, the largest seaborne coking
coal exporter, settled term contract prices for the Japanese fiscal year
starting April 1 at around $300/mt, with most other producers getting similar
prices, even though Xstrata held out and achieved a higher average price of
$362/mt for its term contracts.

At these type of prices all coking producers would be a snip, imho and perhaps
is responcable for the SP hike?
cyril

Topped up today, with WTN reporting on the 13th Nov(at 1;00pm) and CBM shortly afterwards also a possiblity of an offer for WTN still in the air who knows?
cyril

Both WTN (13th) and CBM shortly afterwards. CBM apart from how the former CLN
is performing, new contract prices expected to be annouced and here's a taster?

BRIEF: U.S. Coking Coal Producers Upbeat
Friday, November 07, 2008 3:54 AM

(Source: The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)By The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Nov. 7--U.S. coking coal producers are set for a "decent year" in 2009 because of increases in North American contract prices driven by a shortage of supply and rising demand, coal trader Xcoal Energy & Resources said. Prices for premium hard coking coal used in steelmaking have been settled for next year's contracts by all but one of the major steelmakers in North America at an equivalent export price of $336-$361 a metric ton, up from $106-$110 a ton for this year, said Ernie Thrasher, president of the Latrobe-based company.
At anything close to these rates the SP should start to make a dramatic recovery
(well one can live in hope)?
cyril

UPDATE 1-Cambrian says in offer talks, shares jump

* Confirms possible share-for-share offer for company
* Shares rise 88 percent
(Adds details)
Dec 16 (Reuters) - Cambrian Mining Plc on Tuesday confirmed it was in
talks for a possible share-for-share offer for the company, pushing its shares
up as much as 88 percent in afternoon trade.
The AIM-listed coal, gold and antimony miner had said earlier this month
that it was cutting production to preserve cash and re-organising its operations
at Costerfield, Australia, in view of recent weakness in the world antimony
market.
Cambrian shares were up 55 percent at 25.25 pence at 1423 GMT, after
touching a high of 31 pence earlier.

cyril