Cokal confirms premium quality met coal at Bumi Barito Mineral project
Wednesday, June 29 2011 - 07:34 AM WIB
BBM covers an area of approximately 20,000 hectares, immediately adjacent to BHP Billiton?s Juloi tenement, straddling the Barito River.
The extremely high vitrinite content of the coal can make core recovery extremely difficult in the Maruwai region. After assessing various drill bits and drilling techniques, the drill crews now regularly achieve satisfactory core recovery using HQ (63mm diameter core) core barrels.
To ensure reliable analytical results, Cokal?s experienced geologists measure the core recovery, seal the samples at the drill rig and send the samples by courier such that they arrive in ALS?s laboratory in Brisbane, QLD within 4 to 5 days of core recovery. This ensures the Total Moisture results reflect the in-situ coal moisture and that the metallurgical properties have suffered minimal degradation due to oxidation.
?These laboratory results conducted in Australia by ALS confirm that we have premium metallurgical coal at the BBM project,? said Pat Hanna, Executive Director of Cokal Ltd.
?We now have initial results from four fully cored boreholes and one channel sample. The results show the coal quality ranges from premium coking coal to ultra low volatile PCI. This news confirms that all the seams intersected to date have high value metallurgical qualities,? Hanna said.
?An independent assessment by SRK Consulting stated the tenement was prospective for low volatile PCI and coking coal,? he said. ?These results confirm that assessment?.
The company started mapping of the project in January this year.
?These test results confirm our expectations about the potential of the BBM project, in a region which we believe has the potential to be a significant new metallurgical coal province,? said Jim Middleton, Cokal?s Chief Executive Officer.
?The results indicate evidence of low inherent ash which we hope will result in direct ship opportunities,? said Middleton, adding it is increasing drilling capacity to produce a coal resource estimate by end of third quarter this year.
The sampled coal seams fall into four broad categories of metallurgical coal: Ultra Low volatile PCI, Low Volatile PCI, Blend coking coal and Premium Coking coal.
The Premium coking coal is from a surface outcrop in an area where additional drill rigs have recently commenced operations.
The laboratory analysis show that the seam has a low inherent ash, with the potential to meet export criteria without the need to wash, said Middleton.
?All the coal seams outcrop, allowing good access for open cut mining,? he said.
The project is located on the upper parts of the Barito River. The Barito River is already being utilized by projects in the same area to transport coal by barge down river near Banjarmasin for the transshipping to export markets by up to panamax vessels.
The opportunity to utilize the river for barging makes the implementation of a logistics solution quick and simple, particularly in comparison to competing metallurgical coal projects elsewhere around the globe.
?Independent marketing advice we have received supports our belief that these coals will be highly sought after due to their attractive attributes? said Peter Lynch, chairman of Cokal Ltd. ?We believe they will be keenly sought after to complement other coals becoming popular in modern coke making blends.?
Cokal receives strong interests from the world?s major steel makers as they are looking for diversifying coking coal sources from the major producers of the fuel, the company said.
Although Indonesia has recently become the largest exporter of thermal coal in the world, the metallurgical coal potential of Central Kalimantan is yet to be realized. Kalimantan is located favorably in a geographic sense, being on the doorstep of the world?s biggest and strongest growing markets.
Cokal has increased the number of rigs to three as the company speeds up explorations at BBM sites. The company is looking to continue to add drill rigs and hopes to shortly begin drilling its nearby Borneo Bara Prima (BBP) project.
Cokal has also signed a joint venture to explore for coal in Tanzania with Tanzoz Resources, which currently holds interests in Tanzania for uranium, gold and coal. Cokal recently announced the commencement of drilling activity on its 50% owned Manda project inTanzania.
?The results of analytical testing of the initial drilling results will also be released from Manda by September 2011,? said Middleton. (romel/fitri)