MANTLE Mining is a step closer to establishing a mine in Bacchus Marsh, with exploration having located more brown coal than expected.
The company’s latest report to the Australian Stock Exchange revealed quantities in the tenth hole of a 15-hole exploration program had exceeded the company’s expectations.
“The volume of the coal deposit is more robust than we had hoped,” exploration manager Callum Lamont said.
Drillers’ logs revealed the tenth hole intersected 40.1 metres of brown coal with a predicted thickness of 22.3 metres, representing an 80 per cent increase.
Mr Lamont said there was “no doubt” the project would reach an inferred resource estimate, but he said this was only the first stage in a long process.
There are ‘five levels of confidence’ required by the Joint Ore Reserves (JORC) Committee to establish a mine, each one defining quality, quantity and characteristics of the coal.
The next level of confidence, an “indicated” resource status, would allow the company to seek financial backers for mining plans.
But Mr Lamont said it could take years to reach all five JORC levels.
Moorabool Environment Group (MEG) secretary Deborah Porter said the quality of the coal was yet to be seen.
“All that’s been shown is that there is a high volume of coal, but it will be the quality of the coal that will determine what sort of embodied energy has to be put in to clean up the coal and make it something equivalent to black coal,” she said.
“That’s critical to assessment of the project’s viability.”
Protests by the environment group and Quit Coal ramped up last October after Mantle announced its preliminary exploration had revealed one to two billion tonnes of brown coal suitable for export.
But Mr Lamont said protests were premature.
“We’re just investigating what’s there. We can’t have a conversation on environment, economic and social impacts without knowing what’s there.”
He agreed the positive quantity reports did not suggest quality.
Results and data would be collated and presented as a 3D model, Mr Lamont said, which he expected to release in around three months.
