The company confirmed it received formal approval from the Alberta government for drilling of up to 7000m at Palisades, formerly referred to as the Huff property, located in Hinton.

Altitude president and chief executive officer Andrew Wusaty said the company’s plan would be set in motion in the next several months.

“When completed, the program results should enable the company to declare a new and expanded NI 43-101-compliant mineral resource for the Palisades property later this year,” he said.

Along with the field program, Wusaty said the miner was also focused on laboratory testing for coal quality.

Some work in the area was initially performed by Rio Tinto Canada in 1969 when the complex was known as Huff and later in 1982 and 1983 by Denison Mines.

Moose Mountain Technical Services completed an NI 43-101 technical report on the original Palisades property in 2011.

Palisades, about 30km north of the Yellowhead Highway/Hwy 16 and adjacent to Highway 40 North, is close to CN rail, which services the Grande Cache mine to the northwest.

The drill targets in the proposed program were identified in the 2012 preliminary field assessment program carried out by Dahrouge Geological Consulting of Edmonton, Alberta.

Altitude has contracted Dahrouge to oversee and implement the proposed 2013 drill program.

Initial coal mineral resource estimates completed in 2011 for Palisades by Moose Mountain indicated an inferred resource of about 10.7 million tonnes of low-volatile bituminous coal.

It also identified an initial exploration target of about 140Mt of low-vol bituminous coal.