In its annual report, chairman John Lester said since listing in July 2011, the company had undertaken a number of proactive initiatives designed to position it for growth and development over the short and long term.

“Despite the challenging environment, your board believes that International Coal is now well positioned for growth in the future,” he said.

“Despite much subdued market sentiment, your board has continued to develop opportunities which culminated in our recent announcement to acquire up to 71 per cent of the Consuelo project tenements from the well-known and respected Queensland-based group, Coal Face Resources.

“Your board believes this acquisition and farm-in, which at the date of writing has yet to be formalised, offers a wonderful opportunity to develop a highly prospective site in the years to come.”

Lester said its activity at EPC2197 at South Blackall in Queensland was highly successful and after six months of activity and drilling it published its maiden JORC inferred resource of more than 720 million tonnes of thermal coal.

“This was quite an achievement given the timeframe and following from the success of this program, we undertook a second program on the same site,” he said.

“Our results are pending at the moment but, as recently announced, we expect a substantial increase to our previously announced JORC inferred resource.”

The company also undertook a number of strategic acquisitions and had numerous discussions with potential joint venture parties during the 2012 financial year.

Earlier this year it announced a JV with Queensland Coal Investments, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hancock Prospecting.

“The board of International Coal believes our JV with QCI provides us with an ideal opportunity to realise the full potential for our projects in this region,” he said.

“The QCI group bring substantial professionalism and experience to our projects in this region and we look forward to further developing this relationship.”