Detailing some of the preliminary findings in his annual general meeting presentation, Bandanna Energy managing director Ray Shaw said the concept study showed phase one development of five open pits of 3km in length each.

This open cut mining is expected to take 36 of the total 47-year indicative mine life.

Phase two underground development is targeting the western section of the project area, with two longwalls each aiming for 5 million tonnes per annum from the D2 seam.

Longwall mining is estimated to take 23 years and preliminary data suggests the thermal D2 coal seam has an ash content of around 8%.

Alpha has 60Mt of indicated resources and 922Mt of inferred resources.

Bandanna owns the project but AMCI can earn up to half of it by funding exploration and development to the tune of $25 million.

Shares in Bandanna are up 1.5c to 50.5c this morning.