The total resource has increased significantly from the previously announced 138.1Mt to 185.5Mt. In addition there has been a material change in JORC classification of the resource from 33.8Mt Indicated and 104.3Mt Inferred to 108.8Mt Measured and 23.9Mt Indicated and 52.7Mt Inferred.
The project is located in the Bowen Basin in Central Queensland, approximately 260km West of Rockhampton and 24km North West of Blackwater. It lies to the immediate west of the Wesfarmers’ Curragh mining operation and to the east of the Idemitsu owned Ensham Mine.
The feasibility study, which is still to be released, proposes an open cut mine, producing 1.6Mtpa of high rank, hard coking coal over a mine life of up to 25 years.
The Scorpio seam is the main target seam within the project area, which is part of the Burngrove Formation. The project area is confined within Mineral Development Licence application 403, and Mining Lease application 80164.
Aquila has delineated the perched coal basin and found it to be continuous within the Project area, dipping at 3 to 5 degrees from the eastern margin and more steeply from the western margin. The target Scorpio seam is a prospective open cut coal mining target at comparatively shallow depths between 15mt and 65mt with life of mine strip ratio of 6.5:1.
