The potential that South32 will finally lead the Eagle Downs coking coal project to the promised land of production is a welcome, unexpected and value accretive by-product of one of the sillier $1.4 billion takeovers of modern times.

Tuesday's $US133 million ($176.5 million) deal that introduced South32 as the operator of a project that will now likely speed its way into production is canny and timely for the mid-tier miner born of BHP Billiton's need for simplicity.