News

January 23, 2008

Churchill Cranks Up Its Indonesian Coal Hunt

By Our Man In Oz

The bubbly is yet to flow at AIM-listed Churchill Mining, but the Indonesian-focussed coal explorer has every reason to dispatch the company driver to the local booze supplier for a couple of crates of Moet. In a few weeks, as the news flows in from drilling crews and geological consultants, there should be reason to knock the top of a few bottles as part of a celebration to mark the company’s first formal resource position. That should come after experts from SRK Consulting have run their rulers over the latest drilling from Churchill’s East Kutai project where the company estimates it has outlined between 85 and 90 million tonnes of good quality steaming coal – the stuff in high demand throughout energy hungry Asia.

If all goes to plan, Churchill should find itself on the way to achieving its 2008 target of having 100 million tonnes of coal in the reserve category, and another 400 million tonnes as a resource. With the coal price being pulled along by the strong oil market that should be sufficient for contracts to be signed and for Churchill to make the jump from explorer to producer, even if at a modest start-up rate of a few million tonnes a year.

Investors, especially those who forked out 50 pence a...