Altura Mining to commence Tabalong coal project in 2012
Monday, October 31 2011 - 05:03 AM WIB
Current plans are for a surface mining with the product delivered to an off-take point to the west of the Barito River.
Altura said it will continue to source suitable potential partners for the development of Tabalong project.
The aim of any potential partnership is to expand and enhance the holdings in the Tabalong region and provide access to further coal resources through a joint venture with a well established Indonesian partner.
The company has recently secured two mining permits (IUPs) to develop its Tabalong project.
The permits for Tabalong comprises of two IUPs, one held by PT Suryaraya Permata Khatulistiwa (SPK) for the northernmost tenement and the other by PT Suryaraya Cahaya Cemerlang (SCC) for the southernmost tenement, which is split into two blocks -- block 1 and block 2.
The mining permits total 4,411 hectares comprising 2,547 hectares in SCC and 1,864 hectares in SPK. The permits will allow the permit holders to proceed with the coal mining.
The company said in the third quarter, preliminary investigation into the previously unexplored Area B has commenced. Field reconnaissance has identified a number of drill targets and exploration permits have been applied for to allow drilling to take place. The program will focus on delineating further resources in the high energy coal measures of the Tanjung Formation.
The Tanjung formation is known for its high energy, low ash and medium sulphur coal seams. Further to the north and west of Tabalong there are several metallurgical (coking) coal occurrences and any coal samples recovered from this program will be analysed for their coking potential.
Altura will also be focusing on determining the coking coal potential of the area given its proximity to other coking coal deposits.
Tabalong currently has a JORC compliant resource estimate of 13.4 million tonnes of high grade thermal coal contained within Area A (see Figure 2). Altura is aiming to increase the coal resources during the next phase of exploration and has set a new exploration target of 20 to 25 million tonnes.
The JORC compliant coal resource estimate of 13.4 million tonnes comprises a measured resource of 4.0 million tonnes, an indicated resource of 5.8 million tonnes and a further 3.6 million tonnes of inferred resource. The deposit contains a low ash (4.8 percent), low sulphur (0.98 percent; measured resource), high energy (6,349kcal/kg; as received basis) sub‐bituminous coal. (romel)