With almost $4 million in net money spent over the quarter, the explorer’s cash in hand now stands at $15.3 million, down $4 million from the same period last year.

In a quarter that also saw the appointment of a chairman and a more streamlined development of the company’s efforts to expand Gladstone coal terminal infrastructure, MetroCoal increased its total underground thermal coal resource to 3.8 million tonnes, inferred and indicated.

The flagship Bundi project which is expected to produce 5Mt of coal per annum when longwall operations begin in 2017 represented 1.6Mt of the company’s total resource.

MetroCoal has been enthusiastic about coal quality at Bundi where low-ash, high yield thermal coal seams have been estimated to have an average thickness of more than 3m.

The Bundi scoping study in underway and results are expected to be released this month.

The project improvement at Bundi and the 1.3Mt Columboola tenement over the quarter coincided with the naming of Stephen Everett of Global Resources and IronRidge Resources as MetroCoal’s new chairman and continued development of the Gladstone coal terminal project.

With terms of reference received for the project’s environmental impact statement and the Queensland government’s declaration that the terminal was of state significance, MetroCoal expects its Gladstone development ambitions to be more efficiently coordinated and realised.

MetroCoal also notes that recent Wiggins Island terminal capacity commitments by Surat Basin miners, such as Cockatoo Coal, Stanmore and Xstrata, bode well for the region’s continued infrastructure development.