Altona Energy Plc Westfield Coal Report

 
TIDMANR 
 
10 January 2018 
 
                               Altona Energy Plc 
 
                          ("Altona" or "the Company") 
 
                             Westfield Coal Report 
 
The Board of Altona (AIM: ANR) is pleased to update shareholders with the 
following information regarding the recently commissioned coal study focused on 
its Westfield tenement (EL 5676): 
 
  * A seam of between 3-6m thickness has been confirmed 
 
  * Groundwater level only 10m above the seam in places 
 
  * Seam has as little as 80m of coverage in places 
 
Westfield is estimated to contain approximately 800m tonnes of coal in total 
(non-JORC compliant). 
 
The report was conducted by Runge Pincock Minarco Global ("RPM") who are a 
specialist professional mining consultant with previous history with the 
Arckaringa Exploration Licences. RPM was engaged by WSP Australia Pty Ltd 
("WSP"), the Company's mining consultant. 
 
The study confirmed the existence of two coal seams in the tenement, the 
thicker of the two, the upper seam, being known as the Willoughby Seam. This 
seam is considered to be between 3-6m in depth and running northeast to 
southwest within the Westfield tenement. At its shallowest, it lies at a depth 
of approximately 80m (at the most southerly end currently explored) and 
increases in depth to 215m at the northern end, where the seam has been found 
to be at its thickest. The seam is believed to continue running southwest, 
beyond the edge of the tenement, but no exploration has been conducted in this 
area to date. 
 
The coal is believed to be "less wet", in that it doesn't have significant 
groundwater issues, a key criteria for this report, and the Board is of the 
opinion, based on these findings, that it could be de-watered sufficiently to 
permit either open cut mining or 'longwall' mining (an underground method using 
a single horizontal shaft along the coal face). Previous reports on the 
Westfield tenement have focused on underground mining operations in the 
northeast quadrant where the coal was considered too deep for viable open cut 
mining; however, with the coal price currently around US$100 per tonne, the 
board believes an open cut mining operation may be viable for parts of the 
Willoughby seam in the southwest quadrant, should a suitable resource base be 
established. 
 
The historical data for Westfield is fairly comprehensive in the northeast 
quadrant of the tenement, but little exploration has been done to date in the 
southwest area where the Company is now focused. 
 
The groundwater level in the upper-most area of the southwest quadrant of 
Westfield, has been found to sit only 10m above the seam and the expectation, 
extrapolated from the modelling of the water table further southwest in the 
tenement, shows it has the potential to be deeper still, to the extent that, 
should the Willoughby seam persist at an 80m depth, it may sit above the water 
table in the most south westerly portion of the tenement. 
 
The Board is encouraged by these findings and will meet with WSP in 
mid-January, in Adelaide, to determine the following: 
 
  * Identify drilling targets by conducting either aerial gravity and/or 
    magnetic, or terrestrial seismic surveys - which will accurately define the 
    thickness of the Willoughby Seam and confirm the existence of viable coal 
    in other areas of Westfield. 
 
  * An appropriate mining method and to develop indicative capital and 
    operational costs 
 
  * Assess which technologies have the potential to be economically viable 
    based on the results of the tests to date (i.e. the assumed depth of top of 
    coal in the Willoughby Seam and the properties of the coal already tested, 
    including that in other areas of Westfield) 
 
The Company expects to issue a more detailed timetable in the coming weeks. 
 
Nick Lyth, CEO of Altona, commented, "I am delighted that we have identified an 
area within our tenements that appears to contain significant quantities of 
coal at an 80m depth with manageable groundwater. Our next step is to develop a 
detailed exploration strategy to continue to prove up the resource and de-risk 
this exciting opportunity. 
 
"This represents a major step forward for Altona in delivering value to its 
shareholders." 
 
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of 
Regulation (EU) 596/2014. 
 
                                    -ends- 
 
For further information, please visit www.altonaenergy.com or contact: 
 
Leander (Financial PR)                               [phone] 
Christian Taylor- Wilkinson 
 
Northland Capital Partners Ltd (Nomad and            [phone] 
Broker) 
Matthew Johnson / Gerry Beaney (Corporate 
Finance) 
John Howes (Corporate Broking) 
 
 
About Altona 
 
Altona is listed on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market.  Its principal 
focus is on the evaluation and development of the Company's flagship Arckaringa 
Project to exploit the significant coal resources contained in three 
exploration licences covering 2,500 sq. kms in the northern portion of the 
Permian Arckaringa Basin in South Australia.  The Project is designed to 
produce either coal or syngas products for the Australian market and export 
from an historic resource exceeding 7.8 billion tonnes of coal (1.3 billion 
tonnes historic JORC (2004) compliant). 
 
 
 
END 
 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 10, 2018 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)