Willstormfistly I share both your sentiment and your curiosity...

Willstorm

fistly I share both your sentiment and your curiosity about this resource.

I have talked with an geophys (not geologist)aquaintance about this very thing. In his words or atleast to paraphrase as best I can

The area CTP is operating is a very old area as far as its formation and has been crunched significantly this may have an implication on the O & G outlook, (read into that what you will).
He suggested to me that Australia has enormous amounts of coal as do most countries, it is often like the plith of an orange. sometimes however that coal is not 5 or 7 meters deep but is much deeper.

Now i also have gone looking for a brown coal resource of this size and as yet I have not found one.
I am sure there probably is one, but under 1000m and in a sequence with intervals of upto 30 meters, well, I have looked and if you can find one I would be surpised.

re:
http://www.chinamining.org/News/2010-01-15/1263520023d33418.html

"China has huge coal resources. Some estimates put the total as high as 1 trillion metric tons. But only a fraction of that is economically recoverable. BP puts the country's coal reserves at 114.5 billion tons, placing it third in the world behind Russia (157 billion tons) and the US (238 billion tons). But about 70 percent of China's recoverable coal is in remote arid western areas like Ordors, Jugger and Tuha basins. If the coal is gasified locally and the gas is transported by pipeline or as liquefied gas, it can be utilized in a much more efficient manner. In addition, pollutants may also be better controlled."

exactly why I hold CTP