East Energy gears up for scoping study COMMENT PRINT EMAIL |
By: Esmarie Swanepoel 8th March 2012 Updated 1 hour 1 minute ago TEXT SIZE PERTH (miningweekly.com) - ASX-listed coal developer East Energy was expecting to receive its mining development licence for the Blackall thermal coal project, in Queensland, by the middle of this year.
MD Mark Basso told Mining Weekly on Thursday that the company expected to release a Joint Ore Reserves Committee (Jorc) compliant resource statement by April this year, after which time a scoping study on the project would start.
Basso noted that the scoping study would examine mine design plans, as well as rail and port options for 20-million ton a year opencut operation.
The coal developer was currently investigating its options to export thermal coal through the Abbot Point coal terminal, where the Queensland government announced a A$9-billion expansion plan, taking capacity to almost 400-million tons a year.
The state government has appointed preferred respondents for the expansion, including Anglo American Metallurgical Coal, Vale, Waratah Coal, Rio Tinto Coal and the North Queensland Coal Terminal.
Basso said that East Energy had started preliminary discussions on third-party port allocation with some of the preferred respondents. The company was also hoping to secure rail capacity as a third-party user on proposed rail links between the Eromanga basin and Abbot Point.
“We have just started with a couple of them, and its early days yet,” he added.
Meanwhile, East Energy on Thursday identified an exploration target of between 1.8-billion and two-billion tons at its Blackall project. The company has drilled some 350 exploration holes since exploration started in 2008, to accurately define the target.
In-house modeling of the target suggests that current Jorc inferred resource stood at some 749-million tons.
EER Price at posting:
20.5¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
