County chairman Cameron has also recruited former Centennial marketing general manager Roger Knight and wants County – which listed on the Australian Securities Exchange last December – to export coal from the tenements in Powder River Valley to Asia via the US west coast.

“Our prime focus in the fourth quarter will be the continuing work on securing rail and port capacity on the west coast of North America where we are working on a number of opportunities we have identified, with a view to delivering the best short-term and long-term export logistics and strategy,” the company said in its latest quarterly report.

“Our strategy, while focusing mainly on constructing and operating a major thermal coal mine in the Powder River Basin to export to Asia via a west coast port, will also continue to include the evaluation of other opportunities for developing coal sales from the US.”

County completed the drilling at its Shell Creek prospect which has resulted in a 7% increase to the total JORC coal resource to 730 million tonnes.

In July 2012, County acquired an option over adjacent property at Shell Creek, increasing its Shell Creek project area by 1420 acres (575 hectares) to 2339 acres (955 hectares), which represents an additional exploration target of 300-500Mt.

In the fourth quarter, the company said it would finalise the planning and preparation for an exploration drilling program in the new option area, where the drilling would be targeted at delineating open cut reserves and determining coal quality in those reserves.