Coal from the trial mining run can be independently tested by potential customers while Hunnu can get more technical data to support modelling to upscale Unst Khudag into a larger open cut mine.
Hunnu is in advanced discussions with a number of potential offtake partners and the coal produced from this initial open cut is likely to be sold to the domestic market.
Exploration is continuing at the project with the maiden resource announcement expected in the coming months.
The exploration target for Unst Khudag is 250-500 million tonnes of coal resources.
Within 40km of the Tavan Tolgoi coking coal field, Hunnu started drilling for its Tsant Uul project in Umnugobi province.
The exploration target is 50-100Mt while the project is just 5 kilometres from a coal haulage road to China and will also benefit from planned rail development in the area.
Hunnu previously drilled seven diamond core holes in the project with five hitting coal seams from 0.5m to 25.22m in thickness and starting at just 7.8m from the surface.
Hunnu shares are down 23c to 90c this morning.