When is a deal not a deal? When the price is not settled.
As one American described such a deal, the first stage is when it is "set" and the second when it is "set set." An official from China Power International Development said that what the two companies had signed was an agreement of intent, and they had not yet started price negotiations.
Resourcehouse, the Australian coal and iron-ore project developer planning a Hong Kong listing next month, claimed it had signed the massive deal with CPI, according to which Resourcehouse would supply 30 million tons of coal annually to CPI over next 20 years.
China Daily quoted a CPI official, who did not want to be named, who said the sum of $60 billion was an estimate by Resourcehouse. There probably is no connection between the mention of that sum of money and the planned Hong Kong listing.