Caledon chief operating officer Peter Seear told International Longwall News there was a drill rig onsite at Minyango and he expected an announcement further updating the resource would be made in the coming months.

Seear said the company had just completed a detailed study with SMG Consultants for Minyango and would use a longwall with only a 50-70m wide face.

The same Magatar system used at Cook will be used to develop roads for the longwall.

“Because of the speed of those roadway developments we can effectively use a very narrow longwall face,” he said.

“This mining method has a number of cost and operational benefits.”

Seear said Minyango would target 4 million tonnes of run-of-mine production per annum and would share the same wash plants and rail infrastructure as Cook to make a substantial mining complex.

In its recent resource upgrade, Caledon increased the Cook resource by 131% to 406Mt and Minyango by 50Mt, taking the project to 341Mt and total resources of the company to 747Mt.

Minyango is about 15km north of Cook.

Caledon shares closed down 4c to 89c on the Australian Securities Exchange today.