where things are heading?

Well, facts are fine if found ... but ponderings will have to do in their absence.

# Kingaroy delivered to 400MW commercial production is probably a $500mill venture a minimum two to three years off completion .

# Direct Invest (DI) have been kicking coal dust in Qld for possibly 5 yrs or so now and have just announced Qld Govt approval for a DI funded $1.5bill surface gasification electricity generation project in Qld ... repeat, approved and funded ... no doubt there will be a good year or two to finalise designs and commit to construction.

# That kind of funding would allow three Kingaroys ... so if you were DI, might you be interested in dealing with a UCG power project play at an advanced stage of planning and a largely derisked gasification technology? Why not, timing is with them.

# Coal reserves at Kingaroy are being expanded even though they are already sufficient to support 400MW for 30 years ... why?

# Wandoan is being drilled to confirm reserves indicated to be significantly bigger than Kingaroy for possible power and/or liquids and/or other UCG applications ... why, as there are no current funds even for Kingaroy?

# The crux of UCG is an underground coal gasifier to produce the exact same syngas produced in a surface gasification project, without the hoopla, fanfare and expenditure.

# We all know that with UCG there is no coal mining, no production of surface particulates, no long term rehabilitaton of open cut mines that can be typically 1.5km to 4km long, no man made capital intensive (likely $700mill to $900mill) industrial plant to produce the syngas and no management of the surface wastes of gasified coal.

# Cougar have apparently reached agreement with Direct Invest on the size and staging of the Kingaroy funding package and have appointed a finance manager to work on the details.

We live in interesting times.

Dex