The company says the project has a net present value of $US921 million ($A$1.2 billion) and forecast cumulative free cash-flow of $US1.75 billion from a capital outlay of just $151 million.

The PFS, completed by international technical consultants Salva Resources, was framed around a recoverable resource of 288 million tonnes with average costs of $US42.8/t free on rail assuming average production from the underground longwall mine of 5.8Mtpa.

It says similar longwall mining at the nearby Bogdanka coal mine has consistently delivered very low cost and efficient mining, including several world records for coal extraction over the past few years.

Balamara will now proceed with an in-fill drilling program to help define reserves and feed into the definitive feasibility study next year.

The Sawin PFS follows similar studies completed on the Mariola coal project in March and comes ahead of the PFS expected to be finalised shortly and delivered by the end of June on the Nowa Ruda coking coal project.

Balamara, which delisted from the ASX recently due to a lack of interest, is pushing forward with plans to develop all three assets towards development and production.

Balamara managing director Mike Ralston said the PFS was a “tremendous result” for remaining shareholders.

“The Sawin PFS has exceeded our expectations in almost every respect, demonstrating exceptional returns from what is clearly a Tier-1 asset with the potential to underpin a very robust, long-life underground coal mining operation.

“This supports Balamara’s aggressive development strategy within the strong Polish coal sector. We are committed to transforming Balamara into a major European coal producer in the near term and we see the Sawin Project playing an important role in this process.”

Sawin is located within the Lublin Coal Basin adjacent to the concession owned by Australian-listed junior Prairie Mining, which in turn is adjacent to the Bogdanka thermal coal mine operated by listed Polish mining company Lubelski Wegiel Bogdanka.

Sawin is close to well established regional rail infrastructure with underused bulk cargo capacity for low transportation costs within Poland as well as to regional European markets, and to the seaborne export market through underutilised ports in the north of Poland.

The concession is connected by local roads to the Polish road networks.