EMERGING coal producer OGL Resources has announced it will proceed with plans to access facilities at the Port of Brisbane to handle, store and transport up to 1.5 million tonnes of coal per annum.
The announcement came after the company completed a successful feasibility study that confirmed the proposed development at the port was economically and practically feasible.
The former timber processor will now work with the port authority to create a commercial access/operation agreement for its exclusive use of the facility.
The agreement will permit OGL to re-open the Ebenezer mine and export an initial 600,000t increasing to 1.5mtpa through existing port infrastructure.
OGL managing director Allan Fidock said the arrangement would allow the company to produce a high-quality thermal coal product by 2013.
“The combination of low-cost production and high-quality coal product from the Ebenezer mine, with access to transport and [a] port, has OGL Resources in an exceptional position to become Australia’s next export coal producer,” he said.
“I am pleased with the work completed to date on this unique opportunity.” OGL holds licences ML 4712 and MDL 172, which include the Ebenezer mine and cover more than 98 square kilometres.
The company acquired the assets from Zedemar Holdings for $45 million and 10 million shares in 2011.
The Ebenezer mine produced more than 20.5mt of high quality thermal coal for the domestic and export markets between 1988 and 2003, before being closed in 2003 due to low coal prices.
The mine has an estimated coal resource of 31.3mt and its close proximity to existing infrastructure was enough to convince OGL that it was worth re-opening. OGL also announced that it had secured a US$50 million finance facility from EIG Global Energy Partners (EIG) as part of its equity raising to continue work on its projects.
“The company welcomes the participation and financial support of EIG in our development plans, which displays their confidence in the quality of the two tenements by their offering of this facility,” Mr Fidock said.
