MARKETS

NuCoal to acquire Plashett from Bloomfield

NUCOAL Resources plans to gain an exploration target of up to 300 million tonnes of semi-soft and thermal coal with a $76 million scrip offer for the Bloomfield Group’s Plashett coal project in New South Wales’ Hunter Valley.

Lou Caruana
NuCoal to acquire Plashett from Bloomfield

NuCoal managing director Glen Lewis said the acquisition was aimed at boosting NuCoal’s mineral resource base in the Upper Hunter and providing development, operational and financial synergies and flexibility for its Doyles Creek and Savoy Hill projects.

“The proposed acquisition of the Plashett coal assets, subject to shareholder approval, is another significant step in realising our stated corporate strategy of becoming a multi-mine coal company focused on developing high-quality coal assets in the NSW Upper Hunter region,” he said.

“We intend to commence exploration on the Plashett [exploration licence] as soon as we can.

“Based on the information we have at this time, we believe that a significant amount of the exploration target should be amenable to open cut mining and we will focus our initial efforts on the shallower open cut areas targeting strip ratios less than 10 cubic metres per tonne.

“We expect to be able to delineate both semi-soft and thermal quality coals within the Plashett EL.”

Drilling will focus initially on proving a JORC-standard open cut resource of up to 100Mt, according to NuCoal.

Under the proposed deal, Bloomfield MD John Richards will be invited to join the board of NuCoal as a non-executive director.

Richards is also a director of Port Waratah Coal Services.

“Folding Plashett EL 6705 into NuCoal makes strategic sense due to its close proximity to NuCoal’s existing coal assets and other surface infrastructure, such as the Bayswater power station and rail lines,” Richards said.

“NuCoal have the ability to make the Plashett asset part of an expanded coal complex and therefore the sharing of infrastructure makes the capital cost of any such development significantly more economic.

“BBH [Bloomfield subsidiary Big Ben Holdings] shares NuCoal management’s vision for developing high-quality coal assets in the Upper Hunter which is why we have accepted the entire payment structure based on NuCoal scrip and I look forward to joining the board.”

TOPICS:

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the mining sector, brought to you by the Mining Monthly Intelligence team.

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the mining sector, brought to you by the Mining Monthly Intelligence team.

editions

Mining Magazine Intelligence Future Fleets Report 2024

The report paints a picture of the equipment landscape and includes detailed profiles of mines that are employing these fleets

editions

Mining Magazine Intelligence Digitalisation Report 2023

An in-depth review of operations that use digitalisation technology to drive improvements across all areas of mining production

editions

Mining Magazine Intelligence Automation Report 2023

An in-depth review of operations using autonomous solutions in every region and sector, including analysis of the factors driving investment decisions

editions

Mining Magazine Intelligence Exploration Report 2023 (feat. Opaxe data)

A comprehensive review of current exploration rates, trending exploration technologies, a ranking of top drill intercepts and a catalogue of 2022 Initial Resource Estimates and recent discovery successes.