Situated on previously unexplored ground in the basin’s eastern extremity, Rockwood has a JORC indicated and inferred resource of 447 million tonnes of pulverised coal injection coal.

Endocoal has appointed MMG director Brian Francis to undertake prioritise possible open cut mining sites based on his experienced in the Hunter, Gunnedah and Gloucester coalfields.

The company’s geology team will re-interpret exploration data from 2011-12 to identify crop-line locations for initial seams of interest, strata profiles and fault lines.

First-cut mine concept assessments are expected to be ready for review within the month.

Endocoal chief executive Tim Hedley said the plan was to move quickly from exploration to real value-adding stages and then into actual mine development.

“The specialist mine planner we have engaged has had wide experience in planning mining pits in multi-seam environments, featuring a range of seam thicknesses, as well as in structurally altered strata,” he said.

“These types of seam configurations are being mined successfully elsewhere in Queensland and in the Hunter Valley. We have good reason to believe the same proven techniques can be applied just as well at Rockwood to deliver successful mine outcomes.

Hedley said the next focus for the explorer would be to confirm seam structure with an in-fill drilling program, upgrade the resource from indicated to measured status and clarify the coal product’s quality and specifications.