Atrum Coal reveals ‘outstanding’ results from drilling at Elan South
Atrum Coal has uncovered “significant” coal intercepts in all 24 holes drilled so far at the South East Corner target.
Atrum Coal (ASX: ATU) has received what is describes as “outstanding” results from initial drilling at the South East Corner area of its wholly-owned Elan hard coking coal project in Canada.
Drilling has been ongoing at the project’s Elan South deposit with 50-holes completed by mid-August.
Additionally, Atrum has mobilised another rig to the prospect to accelerate the 2019 field program.
More than 20 holes were drilled at the deposit’s South East Corner target and multiple coal seams were intersected in all holes with apparent coal seam thickness ranging from 5.2m and 35.5m.
Atrum noted the results so far could underpin an early life, low strip open pit mine, with many of the intersections revealing coal seams within 5m of surface.
“We are very pleased to have established access and drilled a number of holes into the highly anticipated South East Corner area,” Atrum managing director Max Wang said.
“The initial results have certainly validated our excited about this prospective zone of Elan South.”
“Significant coal intercepts in all initial 24 holes drilled and processed at South East Corner, with a number showing deposition starting from near surface, have highlighted the considerable shallow resource potential that exists.”
Mr Wang added the company hoped to reveal an initial resource for the South East Corner later this year that will be incorporated into the overall Elan South estimate.
Elan hard coking coal project
At the start of this year, Atrum released an exploration target for Elan South ranging between 30 million tonnes and 120Mt.
Overall, the Elan project has a current JORC estimate of 298Mt hard coking coal.
Elan South is Atrum’s initial focus for development with the area about 13km from an existing rail line which provides direct access to export terminals in Vancouver and Prince Rupert.
Teck Resources operates five mines in the Elk Valley complex about 30km from Elan and ships 25Mt a year of premium hard coking coal to international markets.
This morning’s news spurred Atrum’s share price up more than 10% to reach $0.32 before midday.