The company has now completed the first four holes of the in-fill program, with results outlining a substantial zone of 2m thick coal in seam S391, which is considerably thicker and more consistent than previously identified or modelled.

Historical drilling at Sawin was conducted under the direction of the Polish Geological Institute and was relatively wide-spaced, with holes generally ranging from 1.5km-2km apart. This led to Balamara’s initial 1.2 billion tonne JORC resource for Sawin, published in 2015, being categorised as Inferred Resources.

Balamara commenced a 9-hole in-fill drilling program in late 2015 with the objective of selectively in-filling the major parts of the deposit to a spacing of approximately 1km.

The results from the first four holes have confirmed the presence of this 2m thick zone within the S391 coal seam, which had previously not been recognised due to the wide-spaced nature of the historical drilling.

This result is important as the delineation of this significant thick coal seam (S391) will allow Balamara to focus its production strategy within this zone during the first decade of Sawin production, allowing for greater tonnages of coal to be produced at lower unit costs than previously anticipated, thereby delivering a considerably stronger commercial result.

Sawin remains the “flagship” within Balamara’s portfolio of Polish coal assets and this result will reinforce the commercial outcomes associated with this project, the company said.

It announced an initial pre-feasibility study for the Sawin Project in June 2015, which highlighted a low capital cost start-up mine ($US152 million) with the potential to generate significant cash flow over a 50 year mine life, delivering a net present value of $920 million.