PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Coal miner Stanmore Coal has reported an increase in the Joint Ore Reserves Committee- (Jorc-) compliant resources and reserves at its Isaac Plains coking coal complex, in Queensland.

The ASX-listed junior on Wednesday said that the Jorc resource at Isaac Plains had more than doubled from 30.1-million tonnes to 76.9-million tonnes, while the Jorc reserve had tripled from 5-million tonnes to 15.3-million tonnes.

The updated resource estimate included a maiden resource of 28.7-million tonnes for the Isaac Plains East mine extension.

Stanmore said that the updated Jorc reserve for the Isaac Plains complex had increased the total opencut mine life from three to ten years, based on a steady state production of 1.5-million tonnes a year run-of-mine coal.

The company pointed out that the mining conditions at Isaac Plains East were similar to those experienced at Isaac Plains, and therefore amenable to a dragline operation.

The Isaac Plains East extension would use the existing dragline at the Isaac Plains mine, as well as the fixed infrastructure, including the coal processing and preparation plant, train load out, rail loop, offices and workshop. The replacement cost of this infrastructure has been estimated at some A$350-million.

Stanmore said that owing to the proximity of the two deposits, minimal additional infrastructure would be required to develop Isaac Plains East, with only 3 km of haul road required to connect to the existing Isaac Plains road system.

Meanwhile, the process to obtain the necessary mining leases for the Isaac Plains East extension was under way. The company was aiming to lodge the necessary documentation by the December quarter, with the mining lease targeted for grant in the second half of 2017.

Stanmore MD Nick Jorss said that combining the two neighbouring Bowen basin assets, stripping out significant costs and undertaking a comprehensive exploration programme, had created a low-cost coking coal complex at Isaac Plains, with significant mine life.

“Upon grant of the mining lease at Isaac Plains East, we will be a first quartile producer located in the world’s premier export quality coking coal basin. We are currently evaluating the potential to increase production further via underground mining within the Isaac Plains complex,” Jorss said.

He noted that Stanmore had identified substantial Jorc measured and indicated resources, which could be economic to extract by bord-and-pillar or highwall mining methods. These mining methods would require little capital expenditure as they would use existing highwall and surplus capacity within the wash plant and rail loadout infrastructure.

“This important milestone for the company reaffirms our commitment to building a larger mining enterprise based around the strategic infrastructure position at Isaac Plains as we supply some of the world’s top steel mills with our high-quality coking coal.”

Isaac Plains, which was set to produce its first coal in April this year, was expected to produce about 3.3-million tonnes of coal over the next three years.