Company chairman Neil Stuart told the market last week of plans to put off the restructure.

The move would have allowed the company to focus on coal in central Queensland, with metal projects in north Queensland and Western Australia spun off to a new company, Capricorn Metals.

This week the company reported operations during the September quarter remained strongly focused on the exploration for coking, PCI and thermal coal deposits, while no work was performed at the projects in north Queensland and WA.

Drilling activities centred on the South Blackwater and East Middlemount projects during the quarter, with drilling on the West Rolleston project commencing late in the period.

Regional open-hole drilling continued at South Blackwater with 18 boreholes completed, including three re-drills for 10,935m during the quarter.

Meanwhile, exploration drilling at the East Middlemount project completed 10 drillholes for 3084m.

The company said evaluation of methods to determine regional structural issues was now underway at the East Middlemount project, prior to determining the next stage of an exploration program.

The biggest corporate news of the period was the announcement of a subscription agreement with the Australian arm of Indian steelmaker Bhushan Steel.

The deal, subject to shareholder approval, will see Bowen raise $32 million by issuing 100 million ordinary shares and 25 million unlisted options to Bhushan.