By Nellawati
ASX-listed Global metallurgical coal group Cokal Ltd announced on Monday it has identified potential additional seams, the ?KLM? seams and confirmed they contain high quality premium coking coal at its Bumi Barito Mineral (BBM) project in Central Kalimantan.
BBM?s Production Mining Lease in Central Kalimantan covers an area of approximately 15,000 hectares (ha) ? maximum coal lease area allowable. It is immediately adjacent to BHP Billiton?s Juloi tenement, straddling the Barito River.
The company said in a statement that the potential additional seams, the ?KLM? seams, are the uppermost in the package of thirteen seams which have been mapped to date. It forms a significant portion of the JORC compliant Exploration Target1 announced by Cokal in June 2012.
Eighteen (18) boreholes have now been completed in the KLM area, and core samples for four (4) of these boreholes have been analyzed, preliminary results. The geological interpretation of the coal seams continues to develop whilst the drilling program continues to determine the full extent of the KLM seams.
?These laboratory results on initial the cores conducted in Australia by ALS confirm that the coal seams in the far Eastern portion of BBM continue to produce a premium coking coal and a welcome addition to the existing premium metallurgical coal at the BBM project,? said Pat Hanna, Executive Director of Cokal Ltd.
?All of the core samples which have intersected the seam have demonstrated excellent coking potential with Crucible Swell Numbers (CSN) of 9 even on the raw coal results.?
?Although the initial analytical results of the raw coal samples indicate a range of ash between 12.6% to 16.5%, the washed coal results indicate high yields ranging from 80% to 90% and ash results from 4% to 5%, achieved using a relatively high separation density of 1.6. The in-situ ash is generally related to the presence of thin stone bands. We are currently testing large diameter cores (150mm diameter) to determine the possibility of easily separating the stone bands from the coal using a simple in-pit screening process? he said
?We are progressing our Definitive Feasibility Study which will allow BBM to be ?bankable? and then taken into production in the first half of 2014. The BBM project will be developed on the basis of a 2 Mtpa direct ship operation. Plans are well progressed now that the EIS is approved and a mining IUP granted for a project up to 6Mtpa. These are critical elements which must be completed and approved in applying for the necessary mining approvals for the project.? Hanna said.
BBM currently has a JORC Resource of 77 Million tons (Mt) comprised of 70Mt Inferred and 7Mt Indicated Resources. Cokal has eight drill rigs active on BBM with seven focused on converting the 200 to 350Mt additional Exploration Target1 into JORC resources. The KLM seam area potential represents a significant amount of the additional resource potential.
Cokal is targeting an upgraded BBM resource for release in 3rd Quarter 2013, the upgraded resource includes definition of Measured and Indicated Resources which form the basis of the detailed mine plan on which the definitive feasibility will be based.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak
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