The Perth-based explorer’s mining rights at Mbila cover 19,120 hectares of South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province where the project holds a JORC-compliant resource of 154Mt of coal.
The update follows an 11-hole campaign totalling 1870m carried out last March.
Additional resources were discovered in a deposit known as the Beaufort group which continues coal seams between previously explored blocks.
“Identifying the continuation of the Beaufort coal seams combined with the results of the remodelling process, in particular the 46% increase to the measured resources, have further improved our knowledge of and confidence in the Mbila project,” ZYL chief executive Ian Benning said.
“The continuation of the coal seam also demonstrates the potential upside of the area which we will further explore during phase 2 of the infill drilling program, planned for 2013.”
Mbila’s bankable feasibility study, originally scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2012, has been delayed to incorporate the results from the new exploration data.
The project is expected to start production in 2013.
