Marine i thought i had read it somewhere about Bundi upgrade and it is on page 17 of todays presentation:
? Bundi Project ? resource upgrades (mid August) ? JV partner (Late September) ? Columboola JV ? increasing JORC resource (late August) ? Surat Basin Rail ? further news expected ? Scoping Study for Bundi Underground mine commenced. ? We expect to achieve the exploration target of at least 2.5 Billion tonnes by December 2011
Other drilling and news 2nd half:
? In addition to the Bundi Project and the SinoCoal Joint Venture MetroCoal has an excellent resource base to provide development opportunities well in the future. These include:
? EPC 1166 ? Dalby West ? Dalby West presents an attractive target with well developed coal seams at relatively shallow depths. Coal is ideally suited to provide feedstock for Coal to Liquids or will be mined for export when infrastructure is available. ? Exploration drilling will commence in August 2011. The Exploration Target for this tenement is 160Mt to 220Mt *.
? EPC 1167 - Roma North ? Roma North includes the Norwood Project area where 156Mt* inferred resource has already been identified. Extensive exploration target exists to the west of Norwood. Further drilling is planned during 2011 and 2012
There is alot of "most likely" positive announcements that will be coming out over the next 5 months to year end to support the current price based on the above and in all likelihood increase it substantially and get more brokers researching metrocoal.
Just other tidbits of information from prospectus:
Roma North - 890km2 EPC 1167 Prospective for underground mining and UCG. Western half is relatively unexplored with little historic data 605Mt to 850Mt
Roma North - 3 areas Norwood 14,490 Ha ? Currently within the MetroCoal geologically modelled area. ? It is contiguous with Bundi Project within the adjacent EPC 1164 Wandoan West tenement. ? Usable historic drilling is available with good intersections of Macalister Seams such as hole R1618 (CR 11258) which intersected 9m of the Macalister Upper seam. ? Infill drilling should bring this project area to resource status. 150Mt to 210Mt Clifford 27,410 Ha ? Clifford is considered the second highest priority area after Norwood based on available drill spacing. 220Mt to 310Mt The Range 47,140 Ha ? The Range is the western half of the Roma North tenement and contains the ?Lacerta? coal seam gas field. ? Available geological drilling log data is limited within this area. 235Mt to 330Mt
Dalby West- 296km2 EPC 1166 Substantial coal tonnages expected in thick seam intersections. Extensive historic data in areas adjacent to EPC1166. Depths may be too shallow for UCG 160Mt to 220Mt
Dalby West - 2 areas Ducklo 13,740 Ha ? Ducklo forms the western portion of the tenement and is relatively untested by coal exploration. ? Historic drilling has identified significant coal intersections immediately adjacent to the project area on all sides. ? There is high potential for significant coal resources within this target area and therefore has a high priority. ? No historical drilling has been identified within this area and with known coal occurrences along strike 80Mt to 110Mt Dalby South 15,870 Ha ? Dalby South forms the eastern portion of the tenement and has significant historical exploration. ? The Macalister Seam is too shallow for UCG and this area would be considered as a potential underground resource. ? The Tipton CSG field encroaches onto the western edge of this area. 80Mt to 110Mt Total Exploration Target Range 160Mt to 220Mt
Another interesting tidbit of information is that the JV is not just Bundi but also tina and may as per the following for EPC 1164 so this could be a very large deposit once all drilling has been completed on 3 areas:
Bundi 24,000 Ha ? The down dip extensions of Northern Energy?s ?Elimatta? deposit. ? The 2008 MetroCoal drill hole WW2 intersected 5.3m of Macalister Upper and WW5C intersected 7.2m of coalesced Macalister seam. ? A geological model has been generated using new and historic drilling data. 240Mt to 335Mt (currently 595mt and growing)
Tina 16,610 Ha ? Available geological data is restricted to CSG wells which all show significant intersections of Macalister seam. 165Mt to 230Mt (NO JORC recourse yet established) May 24,950 Ha ? Covered by granted PLs and is considered an underground mining target. ? CSG wells have identified significant coal intersections such as Woleebee East 1 which intersected 11.5m of coalesced Macalister seam. 250Mt to 350Mt (NO JORC recourse yet established)
The point for me is that it is not just the next 5 months but the next 18-24 months with the likelihood of multiple sites of drilling in multiple locations and firming up resources well beyond the 2.5bn tonne mark would be my guess. This is the beginning of a long term growth story in my opinion and it is certainly not too late to get onboard.
MTE Price at posting:
94.5¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held