News

October 02, 2008

Churchill Mining Joins The Billion Tonne Club On East Kutai In Indonesia

By Rob Davies

Coal mining is all about big numbers. Unlike gold mining you can’t start small and work your way up because consumers want to have a reliable, large tonnage feed for many years. In contrast to gold, of course, there is not a ready market for odd lots of coal. Paul Mazak, managing director of Churchill Mining, understands that better than anyone. So when he decided to take an interest in coal mining he went to a part of the world that is renowned for its large coal deposits and started off with a target of finding a resource of 500 million tonnes of thermal coal. His company’s exploration programme at East Kutai on the island of Kalimantan in Indonesia has subsequently over-delivered on that promise by declaring a resource of 1.412 billion tonnes in early September. That’s several months ahead of the target too. Not only is it a large tonnage but it is defined to JORC standards by SMG Consultants, an expat firm of Australian consultants based in Indonesia.

A large resource like that is a very fine thing, but a lot of work has yet to be done. The most important is the upgrade of the 972 million tonnes that currently lie in the inferred category. A key element in defining that tonnage to a higher standard is better topographical data, and that is now being done by laser aerial survey. In terms of the resource itself Paul says there is now no point in expanding the resource any further so all four rigs have been transferred to the site where the...