Atrum Coal has announced that the prefeasibility study (PFS) at its Groundhog anthracite project in British Columbia, Canada showed that the property has a net present value of about A$2.1bn ($1.96bn).

The study concluded that the underground operation delivers 5.4 million tons a year run-of-mine (RoM) coal over a 16-year period.

It covered less than 5% of the Groundhog area and only two of over 20 anthracite seams.

Atrum Coal managing director Eric Lilford said, "The results speak for themselves. Groundhog is a world-class asset and we are merely scratching the surface of its potential."

The mine would require a capital investment of A$10m ($9.3m) in 2014, and a further A$67.1m ($62.8m) in 2015, the PFS reported.

Commercial mine development would be funded through strategic offtake financing and debt, Atrum said.

Groundhog has to date hosted Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource of 1.57 billion tons.