Summary:
Taroom
The Taroom project is located 9km south-southeast of the township of Taroom and approximately 450km by road north-west of Brisbane. The topography shows minor relief across the project area with intersections from the Juandah Creek tributaries. The coal measures gently dip to the south-west.
Located within the northern Surat Basin on the eastern flank of the Mimosa Syncline, coal within the Taroom project is contained within the Taroom Coal Measures from the Walloon subgroup. The Taroom Coal Measures are overlain by the Tangalooma Sandstone. These coal measures have been re-correlated to regional naming convention to the Auburn, Bulwer and Condamine seam sequences.
The coal seams intersected at Taroom are characterised as multiple thin plies, which coalesce in their respective parent seam units. With the marine sedimentary influx into the depositional system, some reworking and lensing of minor plies are evident. Core interburden analysis plays a key role in depositional environment definition. Sixty individual coal plies have been correlated and modelled as elements (daughters), with five compounds (parents). The individual seams have been assigned to seven seam groups. In decreasing stratigraphic order, the seam groups are the A (Auburn), B (Bulwer) and C (Condamine) seams.
Coal quality laboratory results are consistent with a thermal coal product suitable for both export and domestic markets.
Coal measures deposited in the Surat Basin are relatively flat and continuous over significant distances. The coal measures within the Taroom deposit are influenced by marine and near-estuarine influxes, which has resulted in reworking of some of the minor seams, outside of the predominant Bulwer and Condamine seam working sections. The coal resources at Taroom are also known to extend beyond MDL158 and MDL275, however, resource estimates have been limited to MDL158 and MDL275.
MDL158 and MDL275, which encompasses the Taroom deposit, has maximum dimensions of approximately 9km long and 10km wide, covering an area of approximately 5,875 hectares. The coal resources at Taroom are also known to extend past the mining tenure, however resource estimates have been limited to the within tenure held by New Hope Group. The coal resources primarily occur within the B and C seam groups. The upper seams in the sequence sub-crop in the east, resulting in complex LOX line geometry. The Taroom Coal Measures have a total vertical interval thickness of approximately 80m, from the A seam down to the C seam group. Depth of weathering ranges from 5 to 25 metres and averages 10-15 metres.
Woori
The Woori Project is located approximately 400 km north-west of Brisbane and 320 km south-west of Rockhampton, between the Central Queensland towns of Miles and Wandoan on the Leichhardt Highway. The topography of the tenure shows a variation of 45m of elevation.
The overall interpretation of the deposit is a simple structure of west-south-westerly dipping coal measures, sub-cropping beneath thin soil cover. In locations where creeks and paleochannels transect the deposit, alluvium cover is known to occur, re-working of thin coal plies is evident, and more sandstone in proportion to coal is observed implying that areas of higher topographic relief host more coal bearing strata.
The Woori deposit has an approximate strike of north-west to south-east. Sediments dip at an average of 1-2 degrees to the southwest, with seams sub-cropping in the northeast. Local variations in both strike and dip occur across Woori.
Weathered material consists of mainly weathered claystone, clay and sandstone. Near the north east area of the tenure near the Juandah Creek the top formation consists of weathered gravels and other alluvium. Areas of high topographic relief have a deeper weathering profile, this is particularly evident in the southern end of the tenure.
The Woori project lies within the Juandah Coal Measures. Deposition of the Juandah Coal Measures occurred during the late Middle Jurassic period in freshwater fluvial, lacustrine and paludal environments. Sediments comprise lithic and felspathic labile sandstones, siltstone, mudstones and coal.
The five coal seam groups comprise 44 plies with ply thickness ranging from 0.1m to 2m. Major coal seams were separated into plies when the parting thickness was greater than 10cm. Each significant ply in the seam group was separated in descending stratigraphic with the following numbers, 1,2,3 and 4. Each major seam was then separated into plies using letters, A, B, and C, with rider seams starting with R (e.g. GL1R and GU1R).
Coal measures deposited in the Surat Basin are relatively flat and continuous over significant distances. The Woori project coal seams can generally be demonstrated (using geophysically correlated drill hole intersections) to be essentially continuous across the MDL187 and beyond.
MDL187, which encompasses the Woori deposit, has maximum dimensions of approximately 3.6km long and 3.6km wide, covering an area of approximately 913 hectares. The coal resources primarily occur within the GU and GL seam groups. The upper seams in the sequence sub-crop in the east. The Woori deposit within the Juandah Coal Measures have a total vertical interval thickness of approximately 70-80m, from the GR seam down to the A seam group. Depth of weathering ranges from 4 to 26 metres and averages 10-15 metres.