16 November
2017
Altona Energy
Plc
(“Altona” or “the Company”)
Commissioning of
Further Coal Study
Following the announcement of 25
September 2017, the Board of Altona (AIM: ANR) confirms that
it has now commissioned a second report to investigate the
probability of viable dry coal or ‘less wet’ coal (coal not
submerged in deep water) deposits in its three tenements in the
Arckaringa Basin, with a focus initially on the Westfield
tenement.
The Westfield tenement is located at the edge of the Great
Artesian Basin, which is at the highest elevation of the tenements
and disconnected from the major water system which covers much of
the Arckaringa Basin.
As previously reported, the Company, through its mining
consultant WSP Australia Pty Ltd, has engaged the services of Runge
Pincock Minarco Global (“RPM”) who are a specialist professional
mining consultant with previous history with the Arckaringa
Exploration Licences (“ELs”).
RPM is an expert in coal and familiar with the Arckaringa Basin
and will undertake a more detailed and accurate data analysis and
mapping of the ELs using the available seismic, water table and
other data to focus in on the Westfield tenement and other areas
disconnected from the main water system to develop information for
a potential seismic programme. This in turn will provide
information for the development of a possible drilling programme.
The objective of these investigations is to define a suitable
target area for a coal mining development. The report is expected
to take a few weeks to complete.
The recent rise in coal prices in Australia, from a low in January 2016 of USD49 per metric tonne, to today’s price of
almost USD100 per metric tonne has
convinced the board and the Company’s new investors of the
viability of a traditional coal strategy. Australia, the world’s largest exporter of
coal, currently exports over 70% of its coal to the Far East and
India (*), giving the board
confidence that it could quickly find a customer once commercial
production has begun.
(*) Sources:
https://www.australianmining.com.au/features/where-does-australias-coal-go-infographic/
https://industry.gov.au/resource/Mining/AustralianMineralCommodities/Documents/Australias-major-export-commodities-coal-fact-sheet.pdf
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)
Christian Taylor- Wilkinson |
+44 (0)7795 168
157 |
Northland Capital
Partners Ltd (Nomad and Broker)
Matthew Johnson / Gerry Beaney (Corporate Finance)
John Howes (Corporate Broking)
|
+44 (0)20 3861
6625 |
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).