As drilling at the project presses toward an interpreted sub crop, thick, shallow coal seams have been identified, with the most significant borehole intersection recording 12m of net coal from 47m depth.

Four seams modelled in the tenement’s JORC deposit average 9.7m in thickness from 25m deep.

The explorer said the resource included coal which was expected to be amenable to open cut mining.

While the target product quality for the 16,500sq.km project needs to undergo further analysis, results to date indicate the thermal coal will be of export quality.

Guildford’s exploration portfolio counts a combined JORC coal resource of 2.2 billion tonnes across its Pentland projects (also in the Galilee Basin) and its South and Middle Gobi projects in Mongolia.