Japan’s sixth-largest electricity retailer, Chugoku Electric, is close to selling its 10 per cent stake in NSW’s Boggabri coal mine, in the latest sign the biggest consumer of Australian thermal coal wants out of the local mining industry.

The Boggabri mine would be valued at more than $1.1 billion if the sale of Chugoku’s 10 per cent stake is completed on the terms anticipated in documents filed with the corporate regulator. Chugoku told the Australian Securities and Investments Commission that the transaction with an unnamed suitor was sufficiently progressed to warrant the stake being recorded as an “asset held for sale” valued at $111.1 million.