The PEA follows Jameson’s announcement last week of an initial 90 million tonne coal resource.

The initial focus of the assessment will be on a surface mine producing a base case of about 1 million clean tonnes of product per year for an initial life of 10-15 years.

The PEA will be on the basis that the majority of Crown Mountain coal will be of metallurgical quality similar to the coking coals shipped from the Elk Valley.

“With the resource now established, and initial scoping study results supporting moving forward to a preliminary economic assessment, we are optimistic that Crown Mountain has attributes associated with viable metallurgical coal mining projects,” Jameson managing director John Holmes said.

Jameson has submitted a notice of work to undertake an additional phase of drilling to the British Columbia Ministry of Energy and Mines.

Subject to this approval and favourable weather, exploration activities are expected to start late in the second quarter.