PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed NuCoal on Friday told shareholders that the company had compiled a shortlist of potential acquisitions, in the wake of the New South Wales government cancelling the Doyles Creek exploration licence.

NuCoal reported that 42 projects of interest had undergone a high-level review, providing the company with a shortlist of targeted acquisitions. All of the projects were Queensland based.

The coal hopeful said that discussions with the vendors have been held regarding possible transactions, but no offer has yet been made.

Meanwhile, NuCoal was also focusing on developing its Dellworth and Savoy Hill licences, also in New South Wales.

The exploration licences were originally obtained to determine whether economically viable coal resources were present, and because the tenements would have allowed for the establishment of an infrastructure corridor to assist the development of Doyles Creek.

However, NuCoal noted that given the circumstances around the Doyles Creek tenement, the company was now looking at the potential coal resource in the exploration licences.

Initial results have indicated that coal at both Dellworth and Savoy Hill was suitable for domestic power station use, and could be accessed through opencut mining, subject to further technical studies. The resource at Savoy Hill has also proven to be of better quality that that at Dellworth, and NuCoal’s focus would now shift to this asset.

The exploration licence covering the Savoy Hill tenement is valid until June 2018.

In the interim, NuCoal was also pursuing its legal options over the Doyles Creek tenement, and has lodged its first legal proceeding in the New South Wales Supreme Court seeking a judicial review against the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

The ICAC was responsible for identifying alleged corruption in the award of the Doyles Creek licence to the project’s previous owners, prompting the New South Wales government to pass legislation to cancel the exploration licence, without compensation.