* Salim Group plans to start Mt Pleasant production in 2017
* Mine to produce high quality coal for export
* Sale leaves Rio Tinto with four operating coal assets (Adds MACH Energy comments)
By Sonali Paul
MELBOURNE, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Global miner Rio Tinto Plc RIO.L RIO.AX has agreed to sell one of its remaining coal mines in Australia to a group owned by Indonesia's third-richest man, Anthoni Salim, continuing an exit from coal as it battles a sharp slump in prices. Energy Australia, set up by the Indonesian conglomerate Salim Group, said on Wednesday it would buy the Mount Pleasant thermal coal assets, which have 474 million tonnes of marketable greserves, for $224 million plus royalties.
"MACH expects first production of coal in late 2017," it said on its web site, adding that the mine would produce high quality, "clean energy coal" for export.
MACH will pay Rio Tinto over 16 months, and the additional royalty will be due only when coal prices top $72.50 a tonne, well above the current price of $47.37 GCLNWCWIDX .
The deal comes at a time when thermal coal prices are mired at more than nine-year lows with an uncertain outlook for a recovery amid global efforts to cut carbon emissions. Rio Tinto shelved plans to develop the mine when prices were much higher.
"We believe Mount Pleasant can have a very positive future under its new owners with different priorities for development and capital allocation," Rio Tinto copper and coal chief executive, Jean-Sebastien Jacques, said in a statement.
Mount Pleasant faces a challenge, as it is located in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales state, where community groups and anti-coal activists have fought development of new mines, a factor that led most analysts not to include, or barely include, the project, in their valuations of Rio Tinto.
"We had placed very little value on the undeveloped Mount Pleasant project due to the many hurdles involved in its potential development," Macquarie analysts said in a note on Wednesday.
The Mount Pleasant sale follows Rio's sale of its stake in the neighbouring Bengalla venture last year for $606 million and leaves it with the Hunter Valley Operations and Mount Thorley Warkworth mines in New South Wales and the Hail Creek and Kestrel coking coal mines in Queensland.
Its Blair Athol mine remains shut after a planned sale to Linc Energy fell through.
Macquarie said selling Mount Pleasant was a good move for Rio, as it could ease cashflow concerns and allow the company to steer money to higher returning projects, such as its Silvergrass iron ore, Amrun bauxite and Oyu Tolgoi copper mines.
MACH Energy's managing director is Scott Winter, who previously worked for fallen Australian coal baron Nathan Tinkler.