The company and its joint venture partner, Bowen Central Coal, a subsidiary of AMCI Holding Australia, are on track to produce a feasibility study by the June 2005 quarter for the Isaac Plains opencut coal mine development, due to go into production by July 1 2006.
In addition, a review of historic exploration data has kicked off at the company’s Belvedere project, a single 325 square kilometre tenement Aquila holds in the southern part of the Bowen Basin.
During the March quarter a mining lease was lodged to cover the Isaac Plains coal mine development and infrastructure. The lease application extends north to the Goonyella to Dalrymple Bay railway and incorporates the planned rail loop and loading facility.
The company released specifications for coal products based on 80% yield. The company expects to produce about 75% coking/PCI coal containing 2.5% inherent moisture, and 9.5% product ash. The bulk of the remaining production will be export quality thermal coal.
A 500 tonne per hour coal preparation plant is planned, to operate four days a week for initial throughput of 2 million tonnes per annum.
During the quarter, a further 39 boreholes were drilled to define the sub-crop of the Vermont/Girrah seams while exploration drilling of another 58 holes was completed at Isaac Plains South.
The company said the Leichhardt Seams showed an average thickness of 2.8m in holes drilled this quarter. In the northern part of the deposit, the underlying Vermont seam comes into contact with the Leichhardt seam for a combined coal intersection up to 10m thick.
“An open-pittable coal resource at Isaac Plains South could add significant value to the Isaac Plains project and provide for future mine expansion,” the company said.
Aquila is also conducting a review of previous data at the Belvedere project where underground coal exploration was conducted in the 1960s using surface drilling and seismic techniques.
Following the discovery of premium hard coking coal, a feasibility to establish underground mine was conducted in 1981. At the time the study areas was constrained to a 25sq.km area by tenement boundaries that prevented access to its eastward and up-dip continuity. When Aquila acquired the ground, incorporating the Moura West deposit, it was able to extend the tenement area to 325sq.km. While no new exploration has been undertaken, Aquila said it had acquired new data from coal seam gas explorers in the form of drilling information and seismic surveys.
The joint venture has conducted a thorough review of the data and has developed a new structural model and new resource estimates. In addition, the resource depth has been found to be more favourable than previously understood and also that dips flatten out down-drip from the sub-crop rather than at a steep angle, as previously thought.
SRK Consulting is reviewing the information to provide a coal resource estimate to JORC-guidelines, expected within the next month. Diamond borehole information suggests a low volatile coking product with 8% product ash and 19% volatiles.
“The Belvedere deposit appears suited to a large-scale underground mine development,” managing director Tony Poli said.
IMC Consultants have carried out a mine study considering a minimum seam thickness of 1.5m from 350m depth to a maximum of 750m. A staged exploration program has been designed to use surface drilling and seismic surveys to confirm the coal quality and the mining environment.
