While some vocal residents of Margaret River, which this week enlisted the supports of British comedians Ben Elton and Michael Palin, are trying to halt a proposed longwall development, Esperance could have an open cut mine and eventually a coal-to-liquid plant at nearby Scaddan, as part of a development by Blackham Resources and Wesfarmers.

The Scaddan deposit is a world-scale stranded deposit at shallow depth, making it amenable to large scale open pit mining methods, according to Blackham.

Scaddan energy project is located adjacent to an infrastructure corridor and only 60 kilometres north of the deepwater port of Esperance.

The resource is in excess of 1.2 billion tonnes of lignite and 7900 petajoules and equates to 50 years worth of potential feedstock, based upon a 15,000 barrel per day coal-to-liquid facility, the company said.

Blackham received initial drill results from the 66-hole drill program at Scaddan, aimed at upgrading the coal resource category within the mining pit area and testing for extensions to the north of the deposit.

“Initial results from the exploration holes in the coal inventory to the north of the resource have returned intersections larger than previously drilled holes,” the company said in a statement.

“Previously the seam thickness through this region was estimated to be in the range of two to eight metres from the historical drilling.

“The remaining exploration holes tested the east and west margins of the current coal inventory.

“These holes will help in the upgrading of confidence of the coal inventory areas to resources during the next review.”

A tourist brochure on Esperance Shire Council’s website, describes its Twilight Beach as the most popular beach in WA.

“The warm sun, fresh clean environment and long stretches of isolated beaches make this the ideal place to ‘get away from it all’,” that brochure said.

Over at Margaret River, as opposition to the project becomes more organised and sophisticated, Vasse coal project operator LD Operations is yet to get through the preliminary phases of the state’s “greentape”

LDO, a notable contractor which also owns the Chain Valley underground coal mine in New South Wales, submitted its first documents to WA’s Environmental Protection Authority back in November and is still awaiting a determination on the level of assessment that will be applied.

That level of assessment is also required for LDO to complete its scientific studies, modelling and detailed management plans, which will be publicly reviewed.

A determination is expected this week.

The draft underground mining plan is looking at a production rate of 1.2 million tonnes per annum for a mine life of 20 years.

The Vasse project is conservatively estimated to have resources of at least 116Mt, according to data provided by Intierra.