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Stanmore Coal Limited announce that an initial JORC Inferred Resource of 99Mt has been established at the company’s 100% owned Mackenzie River Coking Coal Project (EPC’s 1060, 1062, 1547, 1688, 1671).
The 99Mt JORC Inferred Resource has been established down to a 100m depth cut off within the Aquarius seam of the Burngrove Formation. 66Mt of this Inferred Resource occurs at depths shallower than 75m. In addition an exploration target1 of 70Mt – 80Mt has been established within the Leo seam and Aquarius seams covering: - North of the existing Aquarius seam resource area (predominantly north of the Nogoa River); and;
- The Leo seam which lies above the Aquarius seam but has not been cored and sampled at this stage. The Leo seam is typically 1.0m ‐ 1.5m thick and lies approximately 35 metres above the Aquarius seam.
The coal seams strike in a general North South direction over an approximate 25km strike length within the western part of the Mackenzie River project area, and dip towards the west at approximately 2°. The limit of weathering (or top of sub cropping coal) ranges in depth from 19m to 49m across the resource area. A total of 27 holes are now included in the western area geological model, 14 partially cored drill holes and 13 holes rotary open holes. The coal sequence within the Aquarius seam comprises 5 main coal plies (A through E) which occur over a maximum total interval of approximately 4 metres. Within this total interval, the coal plies attain a maximum cumulative thickness of 3.4 metres in the southern part of the lease where all plies are present. Cumulative coal thickness within the Aquarius seam averages 2.2 metres across the entire deposit and is potentially amenable to open cut mining methods. Three larger diameter (100mm) core holes were completed in the south of the deposit to enable float sink testing and indicative product quality to be determined. The completed product coal quality analysis in the southern part of the deposit suggests the coal seams may be washed to produce a coking coal product with the CSN results very positive. Further washability testing is planned to determine the optimal product ash level against product yield. In particular, further investigation is planned into the potential for a 10 – 12% ash product at economic product yields which would feature higher CSN and energy levels. Inherent moisture values for the coal plies average 3.2%. Raw total sulphur is in a range of 0.40% to 1.20%. The Mackenzie River project is ideally located for export as it lies on the rail line to Gladstone between the existing Ensham and Curragh operating mines and adjacent to the Washpool project being developed by Aquila Resources, which is also targeting the Burngrove Formation. Stanmore Coal Managing Director Nick Jorss said, “This marks an important milestone for Stanmore Coal in establishing resources at the first of our coking coal targets. We are very pleased to have 100% ownership of an attractive coking coal project of this quality and magnitude located right on the rail line to the coal ports of Gladstone. We will continue further appraisal drilling at the project with the aim of increasing the JORC Resource tonnages and move to undertake a conceptual mining study to firm up mining methods and a clear path to production.” Drilling and laboratory work is continuing with the aim of expanding the initial JORC Resource within the Aquarius seam and extending it to the Leo seam over the coming months. |
