The exposures which range in thickness from 1.4m to 1.6m suggest the presence of seams in the site’s lower sequence and expanded exploration potential.

Drilling to confirm the stratigraphic location and coal quality of the newly discovered seams will begin in the 2012-13 winter drilling season and is expected to establish the deposits as Cretaceous units below the coal formation hosting Amaam’s current 406 million tonne inferred coal resource.

The explorer said a scoping study at Amaam confirmed the potential for a large-scale open pit with more than 5Mt per annum of premium coking coal and a fully integrated mine, wash plant, 30km rail and greenfield port.

Earlier this month, the company submitted an application for exploration and exploitation at Amaam which is expected to produce a mining licence in the first quarter of 2013.

Upon conversion of the Amaam exploration licence to a mining licence, Tigers Realm will move from 40% to 60% ownership of the deposit.

It will move to 80% ownership upon completion of a bankable feasibility study.