Located south of the Horse Creek area within 1012 hectares in EPCs 796 and 1041, Cockatoo said stage one of drilling in the former permit was complete while drilling in the latter permit and the Dogwood Creek area (EPC 813) was ongoing.

Of over 100 drillhole results announced to the market since its last round, Cockatoo said the recent drilling had cumulative downhole coal intercepts of up to 14.1m with average intercepts of 7.3m.

“The open hole drilling program, with selective follow-up core drilling for coal quality test work will continue over the coming months, designed to elevate other targets within the company’s Surat project to a JORC standard resource estimate,” Cockatoo said.

The company’s wholly owned Surat project stretches over seven exploration permits for coal (EPCs) and two exploration permits for coal applications (EPCAs) covering around 3800 square kilometres.

Cockatoo said some 223 open holes had been drilled for 28,161m in the project by the end of last year, including three cored holes drilled for 320m.

Shares in the company traded half a cent down today to 31c.