Melbourne: Essar Group and other Indian, Southeast Asian and Australian firms have expressed interest in Australian miner Kangaroo Resources’ GPK coal project in Indonesia, a Kangaroo executive said on Thursday.

Kangaroo bought just under 85% of the project last year for $2 million, and has fielded interest from others in the project since then.

“There’s no specific deadline. We’re working through with the parties that have expressed (interest) or provided non-binding bids and we’re looking to work through the process of getting their bids to binding status,” Kangaroo’s chief geologist, Jerko Zuvela, told Reuters.

He declined to say how many parties had expressed interest, but he confirmed that Essar was one of the interested parties.

“As a Group, we keep looking at growth opportunities in the businesses that we are in. However, it is not our policy to comment on any specific proposal,” an Essar Group spokesman said.

A source with direct knowledge of the development said Essar Group was talking to Kangaroo Resources for the Indonesia coal mine, but said talks were at an early stage.

Kangaroo said last month it had appointed Macquarie in Singapore to manage the bid process, but has yet to decide if it wants to sell any part of the project.

“One of the reasons we are considering our strategy on GPK is due to the fact that we have another project of similar coal quality and a lot larger coal resource and reserves at the Tanur Jaya project,” said Zuvela, a member of Kangaroo’s senior management team, referring to another project in Indonesia.

Kangaroo shares jumped 8% on Thursday to close at $0.135.