Aquila Resources Ltd., Cia. Vale do Rio Doce's Australian partner, said it will cost about A$892 million ($762 million) to build a coking coal mine at Eagle Downs in Queensland state.

    Sales from Eagle Downs, 25 kilometers (16 miles) from the town of Moranbah in the Bowen Basin, could start by 2012 at an initial rate of 4 million metric tons annually, Perth-based Aquila said today in a statement to the Australian stock exchange. Mine life may exceed 37 years, it said.

    Based on current prices for coking coal, which rose to a record $300 a ton this year, the project will generate earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of A$900 million a year, Aquila said. Brazil's Vale, the world's biggest producer of iron ore, owns a 50 percent stake in the project.

    Aquila has already secured the right to export 4 million tons a year of coal through the Abbott Point Coal Terminal following an expansion. It may seek to boost output from the mine to 7 million tons a year, it said.

    Aquila fell as much as 4 percent to A$15.56 and traded at A$16.06 at 1:18 p.m. Sydney time on the exchange.