PROMISING ASX-listed coal explorer Cokal has added to its extensive tenement landholding in the Indonesian territory of Kalimantan, in Borneo, after completing the acquisition of 72.5 per cent of PT Silangkop Nusa Raya (SNR) for $722,000 cash.
Indonesian company SNR holds three exploration licenses covering an area of about 13,000 hectares near the Malaysian border in West Kalimantan.
On the completion of the final administrative details associated with the acquisition – due in the June quarter of 2012—Cokal chief executive officer James Middleton said the company intended to embark on a greenfields exploration program to determine the region’s potential. Mr Middleton said that, due to limited historical data on the tenements, significant baseline exploration including scout work and mapping was required.
A review of the area’s geological records by Cokal found that previous work completed by a major Japanese coal company had identified coking coal-bearing formations close to the western border of the SNR licenses.
In March 2012 Cokal signed memorandums of understanding to develop two river ports and two small scale coal-fired power stations in Central Kalimantan, in anticipation of first production from its Bumi Barito mineral project – which has a maide inferred resource of 60 million tonnes of metallurgical coal – by mid 2013.
By Reuben Adams
