Volume 9 Edition 2 2012 - The ASIA Miner

Australia
Bandanna on track for 2014 production
BRISBANE-based Bandanna Energy is on
schedule to begin significant coal production
in 2014. The company has a total JORC resource
supply of 1.62 billion tonnes between
its Bowen and South Galilee basin project
tenements. It has also secured an annual 4
million tonne port allocation in stage one of
the Wiggins Island Coal Export Terminal at
Gladstone, central Queensland.
This agreement is a major milestone for the
Drilling at Bandanna Energy’s Springsure Creek thermal coal project in central Queensland.
company in its bid to move from exploration
into coal production. The company’s managing
director Dr Ray Shaw says, “Bandanna is now
very much on the front foot in transitioning to
its next phase of corporate development.”
Bandanna has one of the largest thermal
coal inventories of any Australian company,
holding 16 coal exploration permits in
Queensland’s Bowen and Galilee basins. It is
the only ASX-listed company with significant
coal development plans in the Galilee basin.
An increase of 31% in the company’s total
resources was announced in December
2011, after drilling results were received from
the Springton domain program within the
Springsure Creek project.
Ray Shaw says, “The indicated resource not
only defines Springsure Creek as a world-class
thermal coal resource project but showcases
Bandanna’s resolve to consistently meet its exploration,
environmental and engineering targets
and timelines, and for the project to
remain on course for coal production in 2014.”
The company will focus its drilling efforts in
2012 at the Springsure Creek deposit within
its group of Bowen Basin projects, with a
total of 80 holes planned to collect geotechnical,
gas and hydrological data for a definitive
feasibility study.
Bandanna has reached an agreement with
the indigenous Kairi people for the cultural
heritage management at its Springsure Creek
Coal Project and Arcturus project in the
Bowen Basin. A cultural heritage management
plan will be developed with the Kairi as
the area’s traditional owners, in conjunction
with the projects’ environmental impact studies
for the development of mines at the sites.
Aston awaits Maules Creek decision
ASTON Resources is eagerly awaiting the
findings of the Planning Assessment Committee
(PAC) which reviewed its application
for environmental approval of its flagship
Maules Creek project in northern New South
Wales. The committee was given an extension
by the NSW Department of Planning and
Infrastructure to allow it time to consider the
substantial amount of material provided by
Aston regarding the Gunnedah basin project.
Aston’s interim chief executive officer Peter
Kane is hopeful of a positive outcome: “We are
confident in the quality of our environmental assessment
and our response to public and government
submissions. We look forward to the
receipt of the PAC report and we remain on track
to deliver first coal in the second half of 2013.”
The company recently signed a joint venture
agreement with Boggabri Coal for the design,
construction and operation of a shared rail
spur. The companies will also incorporate a
special purpose agency to operate the spur.
Both Aston and Boggabri will grant and register
easements over land they hold within the
rail corridor to ensure that access to the main
rail line is protected until the end of both mine
lives. The cost of the transmission power lines,
upstream communications and control equipment
as well as the haul roads accessing the
mines will be shared evenly.
Peter Kane says the joint venture agreement
provides cost effective infrastructure for the
Maules Creek project. “We are excited to be
working together with our near neighbours to
avoid duplication, minimize construction costs
and lock in a long-term access corridor.”
48 | ASIA Miner | March/April 2012