The seam situated in the property’s Denlo Park area contains an indicated resource of 222Mt of coal and is expected to be the first development site of Bandanna’s planned longwall mine at Springsure Creek.

Springsure Creek is situated in Queensland’s Bowen Basin and is targeting two longwall operations for 11 million tonnes per annum.

The Brisbane-based explorer said that the maiden measured resource at the Denlo Park seam is a significant step in the geological confidence of the project.

The improvement is expected to enable a new determination of the minable reserve at the site, especially in the early areas of the mine plan to be mined in the first ten years.

“The maiden declaration of measured resource confirms Springsure Creek as a world class thermal coal project,” Bandanna Energy managing director Michael Gray said.

“We now await an updated reserve declaration that will further demonstrate the engineering and financial feasibility of the proposed underground development.”

In addition to the resource upgrade, a series of geotechnical holes have been drilled along the proposed main access declines, which provide access to the seam from the surface.

Bandanna said the information gathered from the holes has been used to design entries and prepare preliminary tenders as part of the project’s definitive feasibility study which is on track for completion in September 2012.