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http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/1725/cougar-energy-has-2009-milestone-for-kingaroy-ucg-plant-1725.html?ASX:CXY

Cougar Energy specialises in underground coal gasification(UCG) and electricity generation.
Monday, June 15, 2009

Cougar Energy Has 2009 Milestone For Kingaroy UCG Plant

Cougar Energy (ASX: CXY) is on track with its Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) project near Kingaroy in Queensland.

Work is progressing on a pre-production burn being commissioned later in 2009, as the first stage in development of a 400MW power plant using UCG gas as the fuel source.

Recently, Cougar raised $4.2 million to primarily advance the Kingaroy UCG project and specifically for the construction of the UCG Pilot Plant facility due to commence operations later this year.

The UCG process converts coal in-situ into a gas which can be used as a fuel for power generation or for conversion into a range of petrochemical products and gas-to-liquids solutions.

The Kingaroy power station will generate an electricity supply for 400,000 homes for at least 30 years. Costs of producing the power are significantly lower than natural gas supplied power stations and carbon emissions are estimated to be 25% lower than conventional coal-fired stations. Final development timetable and go ahead for the construction and commissioning of the proposed power plant at Kingaroy is dependent on Queensland Government approval of underground coal gasification and Cougar Energy Limited’s program of commercial development.

UCG technology is from Cougar's partner, Ergo Exergy Technologies Inc of Canada. Personnel from Ergo Exergy UCG managed operations at the Angren (Uzbekistan) site for over 40 years, transferred that expertise to the Chinchilla, Queensland site in 1999, and have recently successfully commissioned the pilot burn for the Majuba UCG power project in South Africa for Eskom (public electricity utility) in 2007 (designed to 2100 MW).

A second Queensland UCG project is targetted by Cougar, with a new drilling program having commenced at the company's Wandoan lease (EPC 1118) in the Surat Basin. The Wandoan drilling program is designed to establish an initial JORC compliant coal resource of between 200 million and 300 million tonnes.