Prairie Mining releases June quarterly report

With Debiensko now development ready, Prairie will focus on planning the mine site’s redevelopment programme, including:

• Preparation for an in-fill drill programme to increase JORC measured and indicated resources to support future feasibility studies.
• Completion of a re-engineered mine plan to produce a feasibility study to international standards with a focus on near term production at Debiensko.
• Advancing discussions with regional steel makers and coke producers for future metallurgical coal sales and offtake.
• In preparation for the next phase of project studies, pre-qualification of study contractors was initiated, demolition works commenced in order to remove old structures from the historical Debiensko surface facilities and a shallow geo-technical drill programme commenced for engineering design of foundations for new surface structures.
• Highly favourable market fundamentals remain prominent as Europe continues to consume 47 million t of hard metallurgical coal annually, 85% of which is imported.
• Debiensko metallurgical coal is expected to enjoy strong demand from European steelmakers, with substantial netback pricing advantages given proximity to regional customers Jan Karski Mine.
• Recent coal quality analysis following the drilling of a new exploration borehole re-affirms Jan Karski’s potential to produce high value ultra-low ash semi-soft coking coal and confirms Jan Karski’s status as a Tier One metallurgical coal project of global significance.
• Independent assessment by specialist metallurgical coal market consultants predicts that Jan Karski ultra-low ash semisoft metallurgical coal would potentially realise a 10% premium to international benchmark prices • China Coal has made substantial progress on the Bankable Feasibility Study (BFS) during the quarter. Continued discussions were held with Chinese financing institutions which will progress further towards completion of the BFS during the next quarter.
• The approval of the Deposit Development Plan (DDP) at Jan Karski by the Lublin Regional Mining Authority during the quarter paves the way forward for a mining concession application. Prairie will now focus on:
• Furthering discussions with a select group of Chinese financing institutions as China Coal nears completion of its BFS.
• Continuing project permitting activities including obtaining an Environmental Consent Decision, Spatial Planning consents (rezoning) and land acquisition at Jan Karski.
• Formally lodging a mining concession application for Jan Karski.

The Strategic Co-operation Agreement with China Coal demonstrates the increasing economic collaboration between Poland and China following China’s proposed ‘One Belt, One Road’ development strategy and highlights Poland’s importance to China as a “One Belt Economy” for accessing key European markets.

 

Significant government support was received at the 2017 Jan Karski Mine Development Conference as regional authorities, the Australian Ambassador to Poland, the Vice Marshall of the Lublin province and representatives from the Polish Investment and Trade Agency and numerous other distinguished regional officials were updated on Jan Karski’s considerable progress to date.

Conditions for power grid connection have been signed with national power utility, PGE Dystrybucja S.A., which will provide the 45 MW bulk supply required for full scale mine production at Jan Karski.

Development activities have commenced with the appointment of a leading contractor to design and supervise the bulk power supply connections for the project, including power lines and substations.

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/mining/17072017/prairie-mining-releases-june-quarterly-report/