East Energy has drilled 12 rotary air blast holes as well as 30 core holes at the Amambi deposit.

A JORC-compliant inferred resource is expected to be released at the end of 2011.

East Energy Resources managing director Mark Basso said drilling progress had reinforced its confidence in the EPC 1149 tenement.

Although the project is still in its infancy, East Energy predicts a thermal coal open cut mine could hold a 15-20 million tonnes per annum production target with a 30-year mine life.

Basso said the Amambi deposit represented an exciting opportunity in the Eromanga Basin.

“Eromanga is little known but it’s a highly lucrative location that will play a significant role in the future of Australia’s coal industry,” he said.

Basso said the Eromanga Basin was only 200 kilometres away from the Galilee Basin, and provided significant opportunities for coal mine development.

“It will develop into a similar size coal reserve as the Galilee Basin,” he previously told ILN.

“The Galilee only developed over the past four to five years and I think the Eromanga Basin is the next area away from that with all the players that are moving in and exploring.”

The Alambi and Carlow deposits lie to the southwest of significant deposits in the Galilee Basin, including Hancock Coal’s Alpha projects and Adani Coal’s Galilee project.

Basso said a mine could be ready in 2016, but a definite mine start-up time was fundamentally based on the development of suitable infrastructure.