The Australian-listed company’s Wonbindi project, located 30km north of the Moura railway and 180km from Gladstone Port in Queensland’s Bowen Basin, is now at the conceptual mine plan stage.

Xenith Consulting will develop a conceptual mine plan by the end of this month and Cockatoo plans to submit a mining lease application mid-2006. Development and coal production at Wonbindi is expected in 2007.

Close space drilling has shown a median vertical overburden to coal ratio of 9.8 to 1 in the likely mine start-up area.

Negotiations continued during the March quarter to secure and use a site for a stockpile and train loading facility on the Moura railway line, to rail coal to the port of Gladstone and to secure a dedicated stockpile area at the port with the capacity to export up to 1 million tonnes per annum from 2007.

Cockatoo also progressed drilling at its Dingo project, also in Queensland’s Bowen Basin. The company has identified four targets and two potential targets for further close spaced drilling.

The company said the target coal seams are generally less than 150m deep, have a vertical overburden to coal ratio generally of less than 10 to 1 and are in the northern part of EPC 862 – closer to infrastructure.

Cockatoo closed down 2.86% on Friday at 17 cents.