The Queensland-based gold miner plans to turn the 500 million tonne deposit of thermal coal into a highwall and longwall operation as well as for the extraction and sale of coal seam methane.
Having finalised the deal with Calcifer Industrial Minerals, Mantle Mining will now proceed with native title negotiations for the area with the Djungan Aboriginal Corporation.
Historically, Mount Mulligan has an identified class 1 deposit of 144Mt and an identified class 2 deposit of 507Mt - but despite being mined for over 40 years the deposit is still underexplored, with only two holes effectively testing the basin.
The deposit was mined during 1910 to 1957, when the local power station was shut down and rail locomotives were converted to diesel.
