Projects
MetroCoal holds extensive coal exploration tenements in the Surat Basin covering approximately 4,000km². These tenements are down dip of well known resources including Wandoan, Elimatta, Cameby Downs and Worri.
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Information from past exploration programs confirms that the coal seams extend into MetroCoal's tenements and the Company has already completed two of their own exploratory drilling programs.
The first program was undertaken in 2008 and comprised seven widely spaced holes over approximately 50 kilometres of strike in the northern tenements.
The second was focused within the Juandah Project area (MDLA 406) and established an initial JORC Code compliant resource of 172 million tonnes. Geological information gathered in these programs together with historic public domain data has given MetroCoal a sound understanding of the geological environment and relevant seam structure in the MetroCoal tenements.
Based on the geological information from the historic drilling programs and its own drilling results the company expects to identify a coal resource of at least 2.5 billion tonnes with a JORC Code classification of "inferred" or better, within the next two years.
The resource is expected to include over 250 million tonnes within the Juandah Project area that will be available for underground coal gasification (UCG) and subsequent coal-to-liquids and/or syngas fired power generation.
Expert geological advice confirms that the Macalister Upper Seam is continuous over most of MetroCoal’s tenements with seam thickness expected to be between 2.5metres and 4.5metres.
This seam thickness is ideal for modern high productivity bord and pillar and longwall mining. Extensive areas where the Macalister Upper, Middle and Lower seams coalesce are also expected. In these areas the composite seam thickness may be as much as 12metres thick presenting very attractive mining and UCG targets. The bulk of the resource will be suited to either conventional underground mining or UCG. Some areas of opencast mineable coal are expected along the northern and eastern boundaries of the EPCs.
World demand for energy both as thermal coal and liquid fuels is growing as is expected to continue to grow into the foreseeable future. The coal in the Surat Basin is ideally suited to producing high quality export thermal product and also to provide the feedstock for an alternative energy source such as UCG.
MetroCoal's core strategy is therefore to establish a coal resource of between 2.5 and 3.5 billion tonnes within its existing tenements. The tenements have the potential for a much greater tonnage but this initial resource will provide the base from which to establish an export thermal coal capacity from conventional underground and opencast mining operations. It will also provide a world class base for UCG operations producing syngas that can be converted to clean fuels, fertilizers or used to generate cleaner electric power.
| Basin | Project | Tenement | Name | Sub Blocks | Area (km²) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Moreton | Ipswich | EPC 1152 | Lockyer Valley | 150 | 456 |
| 2 | Surat | Injune | EPC 1159 | Injune Creek | 237 | 732.1 |
| 3 | Surat | Surat | EPC 1164 | Wandoan West | 215 | 662.4 |
| 4 | Surat | Surat | EPC 1165 | Columboola | 294 | 901.9 |
| 5 | Surat | Surat | EPC 1166 | Dalby West | 97 | 296.1 |
| 6 | Surat | Surat | EPC 1167 | Roma North | 289 | 890.2 |
| 7 | Surat | Surat | EPC 1251 | Wandoan West 2 | 19 | 58.5 |
| 8 | Surat | Surat | EPC (A) 1609 | Wandoan West 3 | 18 | 55.4 |
| 9 | Surat | Surat | MDLA 406 | Juandah | - | 49.9 |
| 10 | Surat | Surat | MDLA 417 | Elle | - | 18.4 |
| 11 | Surat | Surat | MDLA 418 | Kay | - | 18.4 |
| 12 | Surat | Surat | MDLA 419 | Jay | - | 42.5 |
| 13 | Ipswich | Ipswich | EPC 1501 | Dugandan | 20 | 60.8 |
| 14 | Galilee | Galilee | EPC (A) 1640 | Pentland South | 114 | 340 |
Juandah Project
The Juandah Project is an area of some 60km² within the Wandoan tenement, EPC 1164. Application has been made for a Mineral Development Licence (MDL) over this area - MDLA 406.
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The project area is particularly attractive as it contains substantial coal that should be suitable for UCG. A 16-hole drilling program, completed on 1 May 2009, has identified a JORC Code compliant resource as follows:
| Inferred | 149Mt |
| Indicated | 23Mt |
| Total Inferred & Indicated | 172Mt |
This resource comfortably exceeds MetroCoal's 100Mt target required to support a major UCG project producing 20,000 barrels a day of high quality, cleaner liquid fuels. There is also significant scope to increase the resource in areas where the Macalister Lower Seam coalesce with the Macalister Upper creating potential working sections up to 12 metres thick. Further drilling is planned in these areas and in the remaining, undrilled area of the MDLA to better define coal quality and areas of thickened and coalesced Macalister Seams.
The area has no overlapping P&G tenure and MetroCoal will therefore have exclusive right to apply for the necessary UCG extraction licenses in accordance with the new government policy.