BBM comprises 19,920 hectares on the Barito River and is immediately adjacent to BHP Billion’s Juloi tenement.

The latest seam discovery is the uppermost deposit to date among the BBM’s nine mapped seams.

JORC-compliant resources for the site currently stand at 60 million tonnes of inferred coal but do not include estimates for the newly discovered “J” seam.

Cokal executive director Pat Hanna said analysis of the deposit confirmed a similarity to the nature of the surrounding resource.

“These laboratory results conducted in Australia by ALS confirm that the ‘J’ seam is a premium coking coal and a welcome addition to the existing premium metallurgical coal at the BBM project,” he said.

“All of the core samples which have intersected the seam have demonstrated excellent coking

potential with crucible swell numbers of nine or greater on even the raw coal results.”

Cokal managing director Jim Middleton said one of the most remarkable features of BBM coal was its quality.

The coal has very attractive attributes, being very low in impurities while containing the right metallurgical attributes which steelmakers are seeking.

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 planned to put BBM into production “as early as possible” and projected a 1-2 million tonne per annum direct shipping ore operation.