Australia?s Fast Scout to enter coal mining business in E. Kalimantan
Friday, November 18 2005 - 05:13 AM WIB
FSL said in statement to the Australian Stock Exchange that it would receive 100 percent of coal proceeds from the concessions subject to the payment of a coal royalty to the existing concession holder, the staged payment of US$400,000 per concession and payment of normal government imposed mining royalties.
According to the statement, the first concession is located 65 km southwest of Balikpapan and is conveniently located 7 to 15 km from two potential barging ports along the oceanfront. The 7363-hectare prospect has 30 mapped outcrops of coal seams with an estimated coal resource of 50 million tons.
FSL proposes to conduct due diligence drilling in the concession during the next 3 months to target an open cut thermal coal resource of 15 to 20 million tons.
Meanwhile, the second concession is located approximately 150 km north of Balikpapan along a tributary of the Mahakam River and northwest of Samarinda, a major coal barging port. The 5000-hectare concession is adjacent to a lease being developed by the Korean Coal Corporation.
FSL will be targeting a thermal coal resource of 30 to 50 million tons on the second concession.
FSL added it proposed to sign the binding agreement before the end of November and commence mapping and due diligence drilling as soon as possible before the end of 2005.
?Fast Scout will concurrently seek to confirm the marketability of coal from the concessions and conduct a pre-feasibility study into the economics of mining such coal,? the company said.
Perth-based FSL is mainly engaged in internet security product and software development. The company, however, is to change its business focus to the resources sector.(robert)