2 February
2018
Altona Energy
Plc
(“Altona” or “the Company”)
MoU with Joint
Venture Partners
Altona (AIM: ANR), a coal exploration company focused on
South Australia, is pleased to
report that a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (“MoU”)
between the Company and its Joint Venture Partners, Wintask Group
Limited (“Wintask”) and Sino-Aus Energy Group Limited (“Sino-Aus”)
has been signed.
Under the terms of the MoU, Wintask, Sino-Aus and Altona, have
confirmed their intention to co-operate to assess the potential for
a conventional coal mine in the Westfield tenement. In addition,
both Wintask and Sino-Aus have confirmed to the Company that the
level of funding committed in the 2014 Joint Venture Agreement can
be made available to develop the project (AUD$3.3 million and
AUD$29.7 million, respectively). It is expected that these
amounts would be sufficient to complete all exploration and also
the bankable feasibility study.
Initial investigations by consulting engineers indicate that
there is a coal seam in the south west of the Westfield tenement
that may be sufficiently shallow, dry and disconnected from the
Great Artesian Basin to be economically extractable. There has been
much exploration throughout the Arckaringa Basin generally, but the
area that the Company is now focused on has never been explored.
Previous exploration activities by various companies have focused
on the significant coal deposits elsewhere in the Arckaringa Basin
that were too deep and too connected to the Great Artesian Basin to
be economically extractable.
Altona’s Joint Venture Partners are particularly encouraged by
the current macro-economic conditions for coal demand, particularly
in relation to China. Currently,
the price of thermal coal ex-Newcastle, the main exporting port in
Australia is FoB (“free on board”)
AUD$128 per tonne.
Although the Company cannot estimate the FoB cost for Westfield
until after further exploration, large scale coal miners elsewhere
in Australia typically are quoting
FoB costs of less than AUD$60 per tonne.
This support from Sino-Aus and Wintask encourages the Company to
immediately commence its engagement of a reputable geological
consultant firm to deliver an initial exploration plan for
Westfield.
Nick Lyth, CEO of Altona,
commented, “I am delighted that our partners have expressed a
willingness to develop the Company’s coal project. This level of
funding would represent more than twice the Company’s current
market capitalisation. The economics of conventional coal mining in
Australia are at their strongest
level for several years with a number of thermal coal mine
companies, such as Whitehaven Coal, showing significantly higher
share prices and exceptional profits.
“I look forward to reporting progress on our exploration to
shareholders, along with further updates on our tenement licence
renewals and third-party agreements.”
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes
of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) 596/2014.
-ends-
For further information, please visit www.altonaenergy.com or
contact:
Altona Energy
plc
Nicholas Lyth, Chief Executive Officer |
+44 7769 906 686 |
Leander (Financial
PR)
Christian Taylor- Wilkinson |
+44 7795 168 157 |
Northland Capital
Partners Ltd (Nomad and Broker)
Matthew Johnson / Gerry Beaney (Corporate Finance)
John Howes (Corporate Broking) |
+44 20 3861 6625 |
About Altona Energy
Altona is listed on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM
market. Its principal focus is on the evaluation and
development of the Company’s flagship Arckaringa Project to exploit
the significant coal seams contained in three exploration licences
covering 2,500 sq. kms in the northern portion of the Permian
Arckaringa Basin in South Australia. The Project has an
historic resource exceeding 7.8 billion tonnes of coal (1.3 billion
tonnes historic under JORC 2004).