PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Coal developer Balamara Resources has announced a maiden 1.2-billion-tonne Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource for its Sawin thermal coal project, in Poland.
The resource was compiled from 52 historical drill holes.
MD Mike Ralston said on Monday that the delineation of a resource for Sawin represented a major achievement for the company, and added scale to Balamara's coal asset portfolio in Poland, while demonstrating attractive long-term growth options.
The Sawin project represented a substantial future growth opportunity for Balamara, the company said, alongside two other Polish coal assets, Mariola and Nowa Ruda. The Mariola project was expected to be the flagship production operation, and would be in production by the end of 2016.
The coal resource from Sawin would form the basis for a prefeasibility study at the project, which would start immediately, and would likely be completed by the second quarter of 2015.
“While the Mariola project remains our priority development opportunity, the sheer size and scale of the opportunity at Sawin clearly warrants further work to establish the commercial rationale for an operating mine there, and the overall value this asset can deliver for Balamara at some future stage,” said Ralston.