The Kazput thermal coal project, halfway between the company’s Paulsens mine and Ashburton gold project, has an initial inferred resource of 170 million tonnes of coal at 45% in-situ moisture.
The resource comprises three separate pods of coal – two of which are on Northern Star tenements, and the other on a Northern Star-Fortescue Metals Group joint venture tenement.
Northern Star managing director Bill Beament said the resource was characterised by big seams, but was low grade.
The company considers the resource a domestic product only, considering market conditions, for use in a local coal-fired power station.
Beament said the project wouldn’t remain a part of Northern Star long-term, but the company was yet to consider a strategy for it.
Northern Star made the surprise find in late 2013 during reconnaissance drilling targeting palaeo-channels considered prospective for gold.
