Altona Energy Regulatory News (ANR)

19 Apr 2007 11:27

Altona Resources PLC19 April 2007 19 April 2007 Altona Resources Plc ("Altona" or "the Company") Drilling Programme and Bulk Sampling to Commence at Altona's Wintinna Deposit Altona Resources plc (AIM: ANR) is scheduled to commence the drilling programmeat the Company's Wintinna Deposit in early May 2007, as part of the feasibilitystudy for the development of the Arckaringa Project (the "Project") in SouthAustralia. The Project comprises an integrated coal mine, Coal-to-Liquids("CTL") and power cogeneration plant. The drilling programme, which has been planned by Norman Kennedy, the TechnicalDirector of the Company, with the assistance of external consultants, focuses onan optimum area within the Wintinna Deposit for extraction of coal by open-cutmining methods to supply the proposed CTL plant. The programme will validate andupgrade past exploration results to allow for the previously defined coalresource to be classified according to the current JORC code for reporting coalresources. Another primary objective is the extraction of a representative bulk sample ofapproximately 5 tonnes of coal for process testing. A parallel programme of geotechnical and hydrogeological testing is alsoproposed to supplement the already comprehensive data available from pasttesting. For the purposes of resource validation and the bulk sample collection, it isproposed to drill 6 twinned 200mm diameter cored boreholes located adjacent topreviously drilled cored boreholes at a uniform spacing representativelycovering the total area of investigation. An additional 15 geophysically logged HQ partially cored boreholes and 5geophysically logged open holes are proposed to reduce the borehole spacingwithin the area of interest to between 500 metres and 1 kilometre. It isproposed to fully core a hole at PQ diameter for geotechnical purposes. The past drilling of the Wintinna Deposit has already defined a total resourceof over 3.5 billion tonnes of coal. The new exploration programme has beendesigned to allow for the classification of at least 700 million tonnes of coalfrom within the resource as Measured or Indicated according to the current JORCCode for reporting resources. The Project feasibility study base case entailsthe supply of 10 Million tonnes of coal per annum to produce 10 Million Barrelsof CTL products annually for up to 50 years, a total coal requirement of 500Million tonnes over the Project life. Altona has secured a drilling rig for the proposed programme and it is estimatedthat the field work will take approximately 9 months to complete, or less ifadditional rigs become available. The budgeted cost for the programme, includingthe geotechnical and hydrogeological testing and assessment, is approximately£0.9 million. Chris Lambert, Chairman of Altona, commented: "The scheduling of the drillingprogramme is an important step in the feasibility study and is expected toenable the Company to define a JORC-compliant resource to underpin theArckaringa Project. As soon as this programme and the associated coal technicalassessments are completed, we will be in a strong position to commercialise theProject" The information contained in this announcement has been reviewed by NormanKennedy, the Technical Director of the Company. Mr Kennedy holds a Bachelor ofScience from the University of NSW, and is a Member of the Australian Instituteof Mining and Metallurgy -Ends- For further information please contact: Altona Resources plc Christopher Lambert, Chairman +44 (0) 798 0017 108 Christopher Schrape, Managing Director +61 (0) 417 984 434 Nabarro Wells & Co Limited Hugh Oram, Director +44 (0) 207 710 7400 Parkgreen Communications Justine Howarth / Victoria Thomas +44 (0) 207 7851 7480 Notes to Editors: The Arckaringa Coal Project: The Arckaringa Coal Project ("Arckaringa") comprises the 100% interest in threeexploration licences in South Australia, which have previously been calculatedas a JORC compliant resource of over 7 billion tonnes of sub bituminous Permiancoal, amenable to open pit mining, and suitable as fuel for power generation andpotential application of coal to oil technology. The three exploration licences,EL3360, EL3361, and EL3362 ("the Licences"), cover a combined area ofapproximately 2,500 square kilometres in the northern portion of the PermianArckaringa Basin in South Australia. The Licences include three coal deposits,known as the Westfield Deposit (EL3360), the Wintinna Deposit (EL3361), and theMurloocoppie Deposit (EL3362), are located in close proximity to the Adelaide toDarwin railroad, facilitating improved economic potential for dispatch of coalto coastal based industries and export ports. The railroad will also facilitatemine development and operations. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange