A total of 40 holes were drilled in project F, a small portion of the Amaam North license block, at a depth of 30m to 160m.

The area was chosen due to the presence of outcropping, thick, shallow coking coal seams close to existing infrastructure.

The results from the drilling produced cumulative coal thickness ranging from 2m to 11m with approximate depth of cover from 5m to 115m.

Tigers said the coal was being tested for quality and results were to be reported in the coming weeks.

The company hopes to announce an initial resource in the second quarter of 2013 and the results of a prefeasibility study the following quarter.

In a release Tigers said the initial program aimed to drill out an area at a close spacing to provide the strongest possible chance of rapid delineation of JORC resources.

Further coal resources along the project F deposit have been targeted and additional drilling has been planned.

“Summer fieldwork will focus on refining subcrop locations and surface geology to guide site selection for the next drilling program,” the company said.

“The program will utilise a reinterpretation of surface geology based on recently acquired Ikonos satellite photography.”

An independent consultant geologist previously defined an exploration target of 30-40 million tons for the license based on data collected to June 2012.

A PFS for the company’s other project, Amaam, confirmed a large-scale, long-life open pit and underground mine with production of 6.5 million tons per annum of coking coal, of which 5Mtpa would come from open pit and 1.5Mtpa from underground over the 20-year life-of-mine.

Tigers Realm recently received its mining and exploration license from Russian regulators that allows it to increase its ownership of Amaam to 60%.

Once a bankable feasibility study is completed, it can increase its ownership to 80%.

The company owns 80% of Amaam North.