Companies:

 

Articles:

 
Mining

Yari Minerals to add major coal resource with acquisition of Rolleston South project in Queensland

Go to Imelda Cotton author's page
By Imelda Cotton - 
Yari Minerals ASX YAR Rolleston South coal project acquisition
Copied

Perth-based Yari Minerals (ASX: YAR) will add 78.9 million tonnes of high-calorific-value coal to its portfolio when it completes the acquisition of the highly prospective Rolleston South project in south-east Queensland this month.

Yari has announced a binding agreement to buy out Rolleston South owner Resource Chain, for a total consideration of 119.5 million Yari shares and 86 million performance rights that will vest on declaration of a resource greater than 100 million tonnes, giving Resource Chain a 19.9% shareholding in the company.

Rolleston South spans 272 square kilometres of the world-class Bowen Basin and is within 25km of coal operations owned by multinational groups Glencore and Peabody Energy.

Search criteria

Yari managing director Anthony Italiano said the acquisition ticked all of the company’s search criteria.

“Rolleston South meets the stringent investment criteria we set to identify and acquire a JORC-compliant mineral resource in a Tier 1 jurisdiction that is capable of rapid advance to resource growth and future development scenarios,” he said.

“On completion of this transaction, we will commence a review of the resource model to incorporate additional data from coal seam gas wells and plan a drilling program to grow the mineral resource and increase the resource categorisation.”

Yari is not required to seek shareholder approval for the acquisition, as it will not result in a change to the nature or scale of the company’s activities or represent an increase of more than 25% to its total consolidated assets, equity and budgeted expenditure for the next 12 months.

Target coal seams

Rolleston South comprises six significant target coal seams that sit at the axes of the Rolleston and Warrinilla anticlines in the Bandanna Formation.

Drilling of three rotary percussion bore-holes in 2018 confirmed the presence of these seams, with a maximum thickness of up to 6.06m and average thicknesses of between 1.02m and 2.8m.

Analysis of historical laboratory results has reconfirmed previous coal quality data and indicated that Rolleston South is suitable for a high-grade, low-ash, high-energy coal that Yari expects will be able to support an export thermal product.