Altona EnergyPlc said April 27 that Executive Chairman Qinfu Zhang was appointedchairman of its Arckaringa coal joint venture company, , in the joint venture's first shareholder and board meeting.

Yueqin Yin, chairman of joint venture partner Sino-Aus EnergyGroup (Hong Kong), will be CEO.

Altona nonexecutive director Phil Sutherland, Sino-AusEnergy Group (Hong Kong) director Guang Chen and joint venture partnerWintask Group Ltd.director Jiahong Zhang were also added to the joint venture's board asdirectors.

Furthermore, Altona has signed a service agreement withmining engineering specialists, WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff (Australia) to assessthe quantum and quality of the coal resource at varying depths and undertake atechnology review involving a global assessment of current underground coalgasification technologies.

Altona said in early November 2015 that it the terms of theArckaringa joint venture in relation to the change of project focus tounderground coal gasification.