The mining licence covers about 40% of Amaam’s Area 3. Once additional drilling and study work is complete, Tiger plans to apply for the remainder of the Amaam deposit, comprised of 412Mt of coking coal.

The current licence is targeted for early-life open pit mining and includes 36.5Mt of indicated resources and 117Mt of inferred resources.

Upon conversion of the Amaam exploration licence to mining, Tigers Realm’s ownership of the deposit has increased from 40% to 60%.

It will move to 80% ownership upon completion of the bankable feasibility study underway.

The Amaam North project remains 80% owned by the company.

Tigers Realm CEO Craig Parry said the granting of the licence would see the company rapidly progress towards mining by focusing on further delineation of coal resources in the part of the Amaam deposit covered.

“The high level of support [the company] has received for the Amaam project from both the Russian federal and Chukotka regional governments was instrumental in our achievement of the mining licence on schedule and clearly demonstrates our ability to operate effectively in Chukotka,” Parry said in a statement.

“With our Amaam prefeasibility study now in its final stages and completion expected at the end of March 2013, we’re well on track to establish a large scale, high quality coking coal operation at Amaam with direct shipping access to key Asian markets.”

“Together our Amaam and Amaam North development projects have the potential to deliver over 1Bt of coking coal within the two project licenses and transform Tigers Realm Coal into a significant player on the global coking coal stage,” he added.

Tigers Realm expects to announce the key findings of the prefeasibility study early next month.