Not sure why all the negativity Cyclops. Not that I am an expert on coal leases in Canada but have done some research that may surprise you. Maybe others can either confirm or discount.
Coal lease application requests submitted to Alberta Energy are automatically posted for competitive bidding under the current rules. Therefore any applications for leases made by CPL are put up for public bidding. A review of the leases being offered shows that there are 15 leases that are on offer totalling approx 17,000 hectares. Refer to http://www.energy.gov.ab.ca/coal/pdfs/Coal_Public_Offering_Notice_Dec_02_2009.pdf
If you then look at the location of these lease applications under offer at http://www.energy.gov.ab.ca/xdata/mapProducts/coal.pdf you will see that they all border the current CPL leases at Hinton and Coalspur and are denoted by the number 60 (will need to zoom into Hinton area). My assumption is that Gene, being a savvy operator, has identified that the adjoining lease are available and has made application. Therefore I believe that there is a good chance CPL are the only bidder and they will be granted.
But here is the best part. At lease 2/3 of these leases are a continuation of the Coalspur Project leases and therefore contain the same coal seams for which CPL are currently calculating a JORC. Look at page 10 of the latest CPL presentation and you will see the coal seam/s clearly. These leases could add 30km-40km of further coal seams to the Coalspur project if granted. http://www.coalspur.com/assets/Uploads/091008CoalspurPresentationASX-v2.pdf
Interested on others views.
Don’t under estimate the CPL management team. These guys know the Hinton/Coal Valley area like their own backyards and have managed multi billion $ companies in the process.
We should know by next Friday.
DYOR
Danash
CPL Price at posting:
32.5¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)