PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Coal junior Aspire Mining has been granted a mining lease for its Nuurstei coking coal project, in Mongolia.
The mining licence from the Mineral Resources Authority of Mongolia provides the ASX-listed company with a minimum 30-year tenure over the licensed area, and will result in Aspire issuing ten-million shares to fellow-listed Xanadu Mines under a 2014 sale and purchase agreement.
“Securing a mining licence is an important milestone and reflects the Mongolian government’s continued support for the company and the coal industry in general,” Aspire MD David Paull said on Monday.
“This vindicates our original decision in 2014 to look to add a new coking coal project, which is not rail dependent, and a decision in July 2017 to exercise our option to move to a 90% interest. The company is now working very hard on commercialising this high-quality coking coal project as soon as possible,” Paull added.
Aspire is preparing for a bulk trial of indicative raw coal to test the logistics path and cost targeting delivery into the Tangshan coking coal market.
The coal will be washed at a toll facility in northern China before delivery into Tangshan. The trial will also provide valuable data for future plant design, and will be important in completing a feasibility study for the Nuurstei project, as well as to provide commercial-scale samples for targeted end customers.
In June, Aspire reported that a 150 t/h plant at the Nuurstei project was expected to cost between $10-million and $12-million, while mining contractor Ferrostaal Mining Services has provided an indicative estimate of between $5.75-million and $7.75-million for local infrastructure and services to support the development of the project.