The eastern block of Bumi Barito (BBM) covers roughly 40% of the 20,000-hectare tenement in the country’s Central Kalimantan province.

“The exploration target has been reported in accordance with the JORC code and provides a view on the potential scale of the opportunity at the BBM project,” Cokal executive director Pat Hanna said.

“The eastern block area of BBM has been the focus of our exploration activity at BBM … with four drill rigs in operation drilling progressively towards the eastern boundary.”

Borehole data together with down-hole geophysical logs and seam outcrop mapping suggest that there are at least 13 coal seams in the eastern part of BBM ranging in thickness from 0.2 to 1.5m.

Analysis of BBM seams indicates that the site’s coking and pulverised coal injection coal are typically low in ash but are occasionally banded with a thin deposit of stone which increases ash content to between 9-14%.

“As we progressively continue our exploration activities towards the east, we are uncovering more premium coking coal and a lesser proportion of PCI coal which is related to a very localized igneous intrusion near the Bario River,” Hanna said.

Cokal says although Indonesia is already recognized as one of the world’s largest exporters of thermal coal, the country has substantial potential in the metallurgical market.

The explorer plans to put BBM into production “as early as possible” and projected a 1-2Mt per annum direct shipping operation.