Atlantic Coal plc / Index: AIM / Epic: ATC / Sector: Mining 18 February 2010 Atlantic Coal plc (Atlantic or the Company) Termination of discussions with Maple Carpenter Creek
Atlantic Coal plc, the AIM listed open cast coal production and processing company with activities in Pennsylvania, USA, announces that talks re the potential acquisition of Maple Carpenter Creek, LLC (MCC) have been terminated.

The Company remains committed to identifying value accretive acquisitions, which will compliment the Companys Stockton Colliery in Pennsylvania, where the implementation of a new mine plan and the upgrade of machinery has raised production targets of high quality anthracite to 400,000 run of mine (ROM) tons per annum.
On 7 December 2009, Atlantic announced that it had entered into a non-binding memorandum of terms (Memorandum) to acquire the entire issued share capital of MCC (the Proposed Transaction).

In addition, Atlantic announced that it had agreed to make a working capital loan facility available to MCC of up to US$400,000 (the Loan).
On 17 February Atlantic received notification from the shareholders of MCC that they no longer wished to proceed with the Proposed Transaction on the basis set out in the Memorandum.

This follows recent discussions between Atlantic and MCC pursuant to which alternative terms were proposed by both MCC and Atlantic.

The board of Atlantic, having considered the last revised proposal from MCC, decided that such revisions could not be accepted.

MCC were unwilling to revert to the original terms and consequently, the discussions have been terminated.
To date Atlantic has advanced $300,000 to MCC in accordance with the Loan.

MCC have confirmed that this will be repaid in accordance with the terms of the Loan documentation.
Atlantic Coal Managing Director Steve Best said, "Our aim remains to build a significant coal production company, by acquiring synergistic high quality coal projects to complement our producing Stockton Colliery in Pennsylvania, and we continue to review other opportunities that fit our investment criteria.

Naturally, we are disappointed that we were unable to progress the MCC acquisition, but know that it is vital that every deal provides enhanced shareholder value.

Ramping up production at the Stockton Colliery is a key focus for us and in line with this, we purchased a $3.5m Liebherr R9250 21-yard bucket hydraulic excavator, scheduled to arrive next month, which should immediately increase production capacity."
**ENDS**
For further information on the Company, visit: www.atlanticcoal.com or contact:
Steve Best Atlantic Coal plc Tel: 020 3328 5670 Greg Kuenzel Atlantic Coal plc Tel: 020 3328 5670 Nick Naylor Allenby Capital Limited Tel: 020 3328 5656 Jamie Boyd Allenby Capital Limited Tel: 020 3328 5656 Daniel Fox Davies Fox Davies Capital Ltd Tel: 020 7936 5230 Hugo de Salis St Brides Media & Finance Ltd Tel: 020 7236 1177 Paul Youens St Brides Media & Finance Ltd Tel: 020 7236 1177
Felicity Edwards St Brides Media and Finance Ltd Chaucer House 38 Bow Lane London EC4M 9AY
Tel: +44 (0) 207 236 1177 Mob: +44 (0) 7748 843871 Fax: +44 (0) 207 236 1188 Email: Web: www.sbmf.co.uk
______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________