CROW AGENCY - The Crow Tribe has partnered with a subsidiary of an Australian company to pursue a $7 billion industrial plant that would convert coal into diesel fuel on the Montana reservation.

The Many Stars coal-to-liquids plant would initially produce 50,000 barrels a day of diesel and other fuels. Crow Chairman Carl Venne says construction would begin in several years and coal for the project would come from a tribe-owned mine on the reservation.

The Crow Legislature on Thursday ratified a 50-year development agreement, capping months of negotiations between tribal leaders and the Australian-American Energy Co., a subsidiary of Australian Energy Co.

Representatives of the company and the tribe plan a public unveiling of the project at a Friday press conference on the reservation.