13 Jan 2009 08:00
13 January 2009
Strategic Natural Resources PLC
Subsidiary granted Full Mining Licence
AIM quoted - Strategic Natural Resources PLC ("SNR" or "the Company") announces that its 74% owned subsidiary, Elitheni Coal (Pty) Ltd ("Elitheni"), has been granted an exclusive full mining licence enabling it to commence underground coal extraction over the 92km2 of land in its Phase 1 and 2 Areas at its deposit at Indwe in the Eastern Cape of South Africa.
Having established a mineable in-situ reserve of approximately 100 million tonnes of coal, the Department of Minerals and Energy ("DME") has formally granted an exclusive full mining right to Elitheni. This will provide Elitheni with the sole right to extract and sell all the coal proven up over the entire 92km2 area. The Elitheni team has been diligently working over the past year to ensure that all requirements of the Mineral & Petroleum Resources Development Act of 2002 ("MPRDA") have been met and that the DME is satisfied with all Elitheni's submissions. Elitheni has, to date, completed prospecting over merely 25km2 of the 92km2 of its Phase 1 and 2 Areas with sufficient reserves on this area to supply their first contractual obligation to Indwe Power (Pty) Limited ("IPPL"), an indirect subsidiary of Independent Power South Africa ("IPSA"), for 1 million tonnes of coal per annum for a period of 20 years.
Commenting on this major step forward, Jeremy Metcalfe, SNR's Chief Executive, said "This will now enable Elitheni to move from pure exploration to undertaking major coal production and, based on our results so far, we believe there is a greater abundance of coal reserves over this vast area that we now have full rights to. We are also very pleased with the confidence that the DME has in Elitheni as this licence is the first ever new order mining right for the extraction of coal to be granted in the Eastern Cape of South Africa."
For further information contact:
The Company:
David Nel, Chief Operations Officer
Strategic Natural Resources PLC Tel: + 27 41 374 0842
Nominated Adviser:
Rod Venables/James Reeve HB Corporate Tel: +44 20 7510 8600
Broker:
Nicholas Malins-Smith/James WoodHichens, Harrison plc London/South Africa Tel: +44 20 7382 4450/+27 21 950 2711
PR:
Andrew Dunn/Allan Piper
Tavistock Communications Tel: +44 20 7920 3150