Stanmore Coal reads Gemini Resource

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Stanmore Coal has defined an initial JORC Inferred Resource of 95 million tonnes in the Gemini seam of the Rangal Coal Measures.

The Gemini coal seam was previously mined as a hard coking coal at BHP Billiton’s historical Leichhardt mine four kilometres to the west of the company’s Belview project.

The key seams, besides Gemini to have been identified and interpreted across the lease are the Aries, Orion and Pisces seams.

Source: Company announcement

Stanmore said it has further exploration planned to extend the Inferred Resource and to address core recovery issues it encountered in a number of the drill holes.

To date the Inferred Resource has been calculated from the Gemini seam only, based on testing of the central three holes of the initial six hole program completed in the western margin of the tenement.

The company said it anticipates being able to increase the initial JORC Inferred Resource once it has completed of further drilling.

Coal quality test work carried out on the three holes tested to date has led the company to consider the Gemini Seam capable of producing a dual product comprising a high quality hard coking and a low ash, high energy thermal coal.

Initial clean coal laboratory test results for the central three holes demonstrate a substantial improvement in coking properties from washing with a combined coking and thermal product yield of 90 per cent.

“These coal quality results put Belview coal at the premium end of the coking coal market with the potential to produce a prime hard coking product from seams of very clean coal that are up to six metres thick,” Stanmore Coal managing director Nick Jorss said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“With the increasing scarcity of hard coking coal world-wide and existing shallower mines being depleted we believe that we have identified a very valuable deposit at Belview.

“We will continue resource definition drilling next year with the aim of establishing a substantial JORC compliant resource in the main target seams.

“We will also commission a third party mining study to investigate the potential project economics at Belview using modern mining methods.”