During the quarter ending March 31, the Queensland explorer completed the final links of the Springsure Creek coal supply chain.
This comprised of executing a binding agreement with Acacia Coal for the sharing of train loadout infrastructure.
Bandanna was also awarded a contract with Pacific National for the haulage of coal from the Springsure Creek project to the Wiggins Island coal export terminal.
Bandanna has a 14% stake in WICET stage 1, and has been allocated 4 million tonnes per annum for the export of coal from its Springsure Creek project.
During the quarter, the company also made some key new appointments to its board to prepare for project development.
Australian Coal Association chairman John Pegler was appointed non-executive director while Michael Gray was named the company’s new managing director, succeeding Ray Shaw.
Bandanna made significant progress on the activities front, undertaking exploration, field work and ongoing feasibility and regulatory approval activities to progress the development of its coal projects, with focus on its Springsure Creek and Dingo West projects.
The Springsure Creek project is located 40km south of Emerald and 60km southwest of Blackwater.
Springsure Creek is Bandanna’s flagship project which is tipped to begin production by mid-2014.
Springsure Creek is targeting two longwall operations for 11Mtpa.
Despite wet weather during the reporting period, Bandanna managed to complete six drilling holes, for a total of 2034m, including 392m of core.
Subsequent to the end of the reporting period, Bandanna announced a 50% increase in the reserve at the Springsure Creek project area.
The JORC-compliant marketable reserve for EPC 891 now stands at 153.5Mt, up from 102.6Mt.
Bandanna will continue work on the project’s definitive feasibility study through the June quarter.
Bandanna also undertook exploration work at its Dingo West project which is located to the west of the Dingo township in central Queensland.
The Dingo West project is slated to produce 1Mtpa of high quality, low volatile PCI coal for the export market.
During the quarter a total of 4,219m of drilling was completed at the tenement, comprised of 35 drill holes and 2,185m of core holes.
On the corporate front, Bandanna undertook discussions with a number of third parties regarding possible joint venture partner to help participate in the development of its Queensland Bowen Basin projects.
Pending those discussions, Bandana announced a party had made an indicative, nonâ€binding proposal for project participation.
On January 27, Bandanna confirmed that it was in discussions with Korean group Samtam regarding the possibility of a joint venture partner.
While discussions are ongoing, Bandanna is confident that it will identify and finalise a strategic partner for the joint venture development of its projects.
