The acquisition was made for $C400,000 ($US402,000) and the issue of 750,000 fully paid ordinary shares.

The acquisition includes six coal license applications covering 8343 hectares and associated historical exploration data.

This brings Atrum’s holdings in the Groundhog coalfield to 22,815ha.

Called the Panstone Applications, the license packages have been historically drilled, mapped, surface trenched and channel sampled.

A recent 15-hole diamond drill program at Groundhog indicated the extension of target coal-bearing geology into the Panstone Applications.

The Applications have been transferred into a wholly owned subsidiary, Atrum Coal Groundhog.

The company is working with the Ministry of Mines for British Columbia to transition the Panstone Applications to granted licenses as part of preparation for the 2013 drilling season.

Atrum expects to expand significantly on Groundhog’s 159 million tonne JORC resources, made up of 57.1Mt indicated and 101.9Mt inferred.

It also has made significant progress on its coal quality testing at Groundhog.

The 15 diamond holes yielded 833 individual ply samples, made up of 468 ply samples of coal seams, including coal and partings and 365 roof and floor samples.

Samples were sent to Loring Laboratories in Calgary. The company has completed ash, sulfur and moisture analysis on the 468 raw coal seam ply samples.

Loring Laboratories have advised that initial results confirm a semi-anthracite to anthracitic coal.

Detailed results will not be completed until February, due to the large amount of samples and the comprehensive metallurgical testing Atrum has requested.

The roof and floor samples have been collated for future mine planning and pit optimisation studies.