To date, one reverse circulation hole and three large diameter core holes have been completed. Two LDC and up to seven RC holes remain.
The drilling is focusing on the project’s north and south blocks, which together contain 66 million tons of the total 90Mt resource and had been selected after the project’s recent preliminary economic assessment proved them to be economically viable.
In an announcement on Monday Jameson said the Elk Valley coalfield historically did not favor conventional core drilling, with recoveries usually low and samples fairly unreliable.
To address the concerns, Jameson elected to use LDC and had “exceptional” results.
“The LDC holes are the key to acquiring adequate bulk samples to definitively establish plant yield and coking coal characteristics,” Jameson chief executive officer Art Palm said.
“The core recovery on the first three LDC holes has been excellent: recoveries are averaging over 95%.”
The samples are at Birtley Coal & Minerals laboratories in Calgary, where they will be processed through a series of washability, physical and chemical tests, with full results expected next quarter.
In addition, two of several groundwater monitoring stations have been installed and multiple rock samples have been recovered from the drilling program for geochemical analysis to determine potential metal leaching and acid rock drainage issues necessary for environmental permitting.
Environmental baseline studies including hydrological testwork are continuing on a monthly basis.
Additional downhole hydrological studies including water quality and recharge rates would be undertaken on completion of drilling, Jameson said.
The company anticipates drilling to be completed by mid‐September and intends to advance the project into prefeasibility in the fourth quarter of 2013.
Jameson’s 90%-owned Crown Mountain project is expected to produce 1.3-1.9 million tons per annum of clean metallurgical coal from approximately 3.2Mtpa run of mine coal, supporting a potential mine life of 24 years.
The funds for the drilling program were recently raised through a $A2.6 million ($US2.4 million) placement of 13.125 million shares at 20c each to sophisticated and institutional investors.
