JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – After successfully raising £250 000 through a share placement last month, Edenville Energy is set to begin the next stage of exploration to better define extensions at its Rukwa coal project, in Tanzania, which is already known to host 171-million tons of measured and indicated coal, sufficient to support a 120-MW power station over the life of the project.

Edenville's recently announced power plant feasibility study outlined the potential to scale-up the power station beyond 120 MW in Phase 1 as the power demand increased over time. This exploration work would delineate prime targets for the future expansion of the coal resource.

The exploration programme built on the results of the 2014 ground magnetic survey, conducted across Namwele, Mkomolo and Muze – the three deposit areas that comprised the Rukwa coal project. 

This work programme tested the possibility of additional areas of near-surface coal within the larger Mkomolo basin and better defined the edges of the coal-bearing basins, which were overlain by recent alluvial sediments and not exposed at surface.

The company said on Tuesday that the majority of the magnetic survey data was good quality, although a small portion of the north-eastern grid needed additional survey work to further define structures.  

According to Edenville, the processed data set revealed that the western edge of the Mkomolo basin was further west than originally mapped and that the basin may be larger than originally thought, offering the potential to contain a larger area of coal measures.

In adition, the Namwele basin was “well defined”, but further lines would be placed to the west and east of the existing grid to confirm the western fault contact and throw, providing a better understanding of where additional coal measures may lie.

“At Muze, the western limit of coal measures is well defined, while further magnetic surveying to define the southern and northern portions of the Muze basin will assist in the planning of any future drilling programme targeting the historical 60-million ton coal resource,” said Edenville.

The planned exploration programme was a relatively low-cost exercise, which the company expected to generate significant information relating to the potential for additional coal to the west of the existing measured and indicated coal resource of 160-million tonnes at Namwele and Mkomolo, and extensions to the Muze deposit, which currently hosted an 11-million ton measured and indicated coal resource.

Meanwhile, the mining licence application required several areas to be defined and presented as part of the application process. 

These areas included a mine plan, corporate social responsibility policy, a procurement plan and an employment plan.

Edenville expected to submit its mining licence application in the second quarter of the year.