South Australian Coal

White Energy’s wholly owned subsidiary, South Australian Coal Limited (SAC) holds the exploration rights to a large sub-bituminous coal deposit located in Northern South Australia (EL4534).

The SAC Exploration Area is located about 765 kilometres north of Adelaide and 70 kilometres south west of the township of Coober Pedy. The SAC Exploration is approximately 1,367 square kilometres and it contains the Lake Phillipson coal deposit. The coal located within the Lake Phillipson coal deposit can be classified as sub-bituminous coal.

The SAC Exploration Area is also thought to be prospective for minerals and is located in a world class mineral province with Challenger Gold Mine 90 kilometres north east, Prominent Hill 210 kilometres west and Olympic Dam 280 kilometres to the north west. Preliminary exploration activity has delineated potential for copper, gold, lead, zinc, uranium and iron ore.

Overall Coal Exploration Target

Based on exploration activity carried out by the Company in the 2010 and 2011 drilling programs, and previous coal exploration work undertaken at the site, SAC's Lake Phillipson deposit has the potential to host a coal exploration target in the range of 4 to 4.5 billion tonnes. The previous coal exploration target estimate at Lake Phillipson was completed by Utah Development in 1982. The current estimates are around 90% of the Utah Development estimate.

It should be noted that the potential quantities are conceptual in nature, there has been insufficent exploration to define a mineral resource and it is uncertain if future exploration will result in the determination of a mineral resource.

JORC Resource

Following the 2011 drilling program, the total JORC coal resources are now estimated at 1,130.4 million tonnes.

The JORC resource estimates are limited to a 10:1 strip ratio shell and a 0.5 metre seam thickness cut-off. As a result of the 2011 exploration the main basin resource has increased by 89% and the west basin resource has increased by 32%. In both basins the deep exploration has for many seams increased the resource classification from unclassified to inferred or from inferred to indicated. The tonnage of measured resource has dropped slightly.

Conceptual Mining Plans

Following the completion of the 2011 drilling program and the corresponding JORC resource update, the Company is in the process of developing conceptual mine plans on two of the most prospective coal areas within EL4534, which will enable it to commence preparation of feasibility studies for future development options.

One of the main advantages of the Lake Phillipson coal resource is that an under-utilised railway line is location within the deposit, which can be used to transport product to Adelaide.

Options for the development of Lake Phillipson coal areas

White Energy is currently in the process of analysing the various available options for commericalisation of the Lake Phillipson resource. These include the following:

Mining and selling the coal to domestic power stations

The company is in discussion with a major local power utility with respect to the supply of Lake Phillipson coal for use in its power station. The Lake Phillipson coal is of a similar quality to the coal currently being used by the power utility in question.

Coal gasification opportunities in the South Australian market

Coal samples from the 2010 drilling program were analysed by Lurgi GmbH in Germany during 2011. The results of this testing indicated that the Lake Phillipson coal is suitable for their coal to gas process.

Upgrading and export of the coal using BCB technology

The Company is in the process of preparing samples of Lake Phillipson coal for shipment to its Cessnock Production Plant for briquetting trials in the coming months, once it completes test work currently being undertaken on coal fines samples sourced from a number of South African coal producers.

For further information visit the South Australian Coal Limited website.