PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Mayur Resources has increased the inferred Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource at its Depot Creek coal project, in Papua New Guinea.
The company on Tuesday announced that the inferred resource was now estimated at 12.8-million tonnes, up from the previous estimate of 11.5-million tonnes, and included a higher confidence indicated resource component of 3.9-million tonnes.
“We now have a sufficient pathway to further underpin fuel supply resources to our Enviro Energy Park (EEP) power project in Lae and our Central cement and lime (CCL) project in the Central province,” said MD Paul Mulder.
“The EEP will only require up to 300 000 t/y of coal to supplement the use of other renewable fuel sources such as biomass to generate much needed, reliable, affordable power for the Lae region, and importantly, displace Lae’s current reliance on burning highly polluting diesel and heavy fuel oil for a large portion of its baseload power generation needs.”
Mulder said that the CCL project needed to heat kilns to 1 400 oC in order to process the limestone and the most commonly used fuel to produce cement was coal.
Although domestic gas was an option for the CCL project, any switch to gas would need to be based off a gas price that could compete with coal and the quantity of gas that was available and bankable as a secured supply source for the project.
“The next step for Depot Creek will be an infill and expansion programme to further increase both confidence and continuity in the area covered by the existing resource as well as the resource extensional work along strike to the northwest and southwest, in line with the independent 100-million-tonne exploration target,” said Mulder.