By Jackie Cowhig

JOHANNESBURG, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Trader and producer KIS told Reuters on Wednesday it had signed a 25 year deal to supply four million tonnes a year of coal a year to a consortium of industrial users and power producer Athena in India.

 

Knowledge Infrastructure Systems (KIS) founder Rahul Bhandare said the deal was sealed on Saturday and priced against a basket of indices.

Athena Energy Ventures runs a 1,200 MW coal-fired power plant in Visakhapatnam, or Vizag, on the east coast of India. The other consumers are from a variety of industrial sectors.

"This is the first long-term supply deal of this length of time against a basket of indices in India," Bhandere said.

He was not able to give details of the coal indices which will make up the basket except to say that there will not be an Australian component because KIS will not be supplying Australian coal.

A portion of the 4 million tonnes a year of coal supplied will come from KIS' two newly-acquired coal mines in Indonesia, he said.

KIS is also likely to supply South African coal.

KIS is an unlisted, Delhi-based company founded five years ago by Bhandare. KIS imported around 6 million tonnes of coal in 2005.