The program will target exploration to test outcropping coal formations to the west of Project F which the company views as highly prospective for additional tonnages, with additional drilling at Project F resource area itself for hydrogeological test work.

An updated increased resource estimate for Amaam North from drilling over completed in April is expected in early fourth quarter, the company said yesterday.

The winter drilling start follows the company’s announcement in the June quarter of its acquisition of a key part of its coal supply chain – the Beringovsky Port and Coal Terminal 35km from Project F.

Tigers Realm will ship up to 1 million tonnes per annum from the port, in the south of the Gulf of Anadyr which is on the Pacific Ocean coast – close to key Asian steel markets.

Since Tigers Realm bought it, the port and coal terminal has already shipped 60,809 tonnes of coal this summer season for the state-owned Nagornaya mine, as well as other general cargo.

The port, which has been operating since the 1960s, supported coal exports from the Bering coal district to Japan in the 1980s and 90s.

It is a transhipment facility loading barges that transport the coal to larger ocean-going vessels anchored in deeper water about two nautical miles from shore.

Tigers Realm said barge transhipment of coal was very common, with the distance from Beringovsky very short compared with similar operations in Indonesia and Colombia.

The port has a sea wall, loading berths, coal storage and loading facilities, maintenance facilities, office and warehouse buildings and equipment.