On Tuesday Cockatoo issued its prospectus, which covers the issue of 100 million shares at 20 cents each. Oversubscriptions may be accepted to raise an additional $A5 million.

Cockatoo owns rights to four Queensland coal projects which the company plans to explore and develop towards production.

Its two lead projects, Wonbindi and Dingo, covering 48,640 hectares, are located on the south-eastern flank of the Bowen Basin. Cockatoo believe this area could become a “new coal production region” in Australia.

The company said the area had not been extensively mined because the more complex geology and past poor prices for low-volatile PCI coal had made prospects uneconomic. The price of PCI coal now makes these areas viable.

The 10 coal seams in the area are inclined and faulted, making them unsuitable for longwall or dragline strip mining methods. Cockatoo said it would opt for opencut truck and shovel operations – best suited to the soft overlaying tertiary sediments in the region.

At the Wonbindi project, the company said it would “aggressively move its already defined resources towards opencut coal production in the next two years”

Exploration drilling is under way at the company’s other lead project and fellow Bowen Basin tenement, Dingo. The company has received backing for its Dingo project from Toyota Tsusho Mining (Australia). European international carbon commodity trading house SSM Coal BV is also a substantial shareholder in Cockatoo.

Cockatoo’s other two projects are in the Surat Basin and Moreton Basin.

Cockatoo Coal is headed by managing director Mark Lochtenberg, a former head of Glencore’s coal division.