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.
| Lake Phillipson Basin – Overall Coal Exploration Target Estimates | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mt | Mt | Mt | Mt | |
| Estimate | Main Basin | West Basin | North-West Area | Total |
| Utah Development | 2,289 | 1,520 | 730 | 4,539 |
| JMBC – Dec 2011 | 2,098 | 1,375 | 655[1] | 4,128 |
| Ratio | 92% | 90% | 90% | 91% |
| Note [1] The North-West area exploration targets have not been estimated in 2011; 90% of the Utah estimate is adopted. | ||||
JORC Resource
Following the 2011 drilling program, the total JORC coal resources are now estimated at 1,130.4 million tonnes.
| JORC Resources Estimate – 31 December 2011 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Measured Mt | Indicated Mt | Inferred Mt | Total Mt | |
| Main Basin | 11.5 | 155.6 | 583.0 | 750.1 |
| West Basin | 0.0 | 189.2 | 191.2 | 380.3 |
| Total | 11.5 | 344.8 | 774.2 | 1,130.4 |
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.
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 continues to analyse the various available options for commercialisation of the Lake Phillipson resource, with the current focus on coal gasification opportunities. In this regard, coal samples from the 2010 drilling program were analysed by Lurgi Gmbh, a German based company, which has confirmed that the Lake Phillipson coal is suitable for gasification using their process.
2011 Exploration program
SACL – coal analysed during the 2011 drilling program
The information above on this webpage which relates to Exploration Results, Mineral Resources or Ore Reserves at EL4534, for coal, is based on information compiled by Jonathan Barber, who is a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Jonathan Barber is an employee of Jon Barber Mining Consultants Pty Ltd and has been engaged as a consultant to South Australian Coal Limited. Jonathan Barber has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralization and the type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined is the 2004 Edition of the “Australian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves”. Jonathan Barber consents to the inclusion on this webpage of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.