PERTH (miningweekly.com) - Coal hopeful Guildford Coal on Wednesday told shareholders that its South Gobi coal project, in Mongolia, was on track, despite minor delays.
During the latter part of 2012, Guildford reported that two main factors had attributed to minor delays to the start of mining at South Gobi. These factors included the unexpected intersection of coal in most of the drill holes undertaken across the proposed out-of-pit waste dump area, and local government elections.
Guildford noted that the unexpected coal intersections resulted in the redesign of the lump location, which required revised land permit applications and approvals.
Meanwhile, the new Parliament and Governor for the local government have been elected and installed, and land allocation permits have been made. Guildford noted that the final coordinates were now to be agreed upon with the local government, with the revised permits to be presented to the Mineral Resource Authority of Mongolia for ratification.
The coal junior remained hopeful that it would reach its production goals for both the North Pit and the East Pit of the South Gobi project during 2013.
The South Gobi project consists of five tenements, with a Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource of 110.9-million tons, with the North Pit containing an indicated resource of 39.7-million tons and an inferred resource of 30.7-million tons, while the East Pit contains an inferred resource of 40.5-million tons.