New reports from Aspire’s Mongolian operations

New reports have come in from Aspire Mining’s coal operations in Mongolia. The company has confirmed coal prospectivity at its Nuursteir metallurgical coal project, while and advisory mandate has been agreed upon between Aspire and Argonaut.

Argonaut is a corporate advisory firm and investment house which specialises in the natural resources sector from its offices in Perth, western Australia and Hong Kong. The agreement will see Argonaut advise Aspire Mining in regards to debt and equity funding options for the Northern Railways rail infrastructure project – as well as assisting in negotiations with the Mongolian government to establish licenses to build and finance the Erdenet to Ovoot railway.

 Aspire’s Managing Director Mr David Paull said that “Argonaut has been a long term supporter of the Company, has acted as an adviser to transactions with our key strategic shareholders SouthGobi Resources and Noble Group and has acted as a lead manager in every capital raising since the Company refocused its strategy towards Mongolian coking coal projects in 2010”.

At the company’s Nuurstei metallurgical coal project, meanwhile, Aspire has successfully intersected coal in all six exploration holes that have been drilled to date. Drilling began earlier in September and will be completed by mid-October. The project is designed to rest resource continuity of the coal, as well as targeting near surface coal resources that could support a small road-based trucking operation.

Six holes have been completed, all of which intersected coal seam intervals, some with claystone partings. The thickest intersections so far with apparent thickness of 10.25 m from 24.95 m and 9.79 m from 184.9 m occurred in hole NDH1006.

 Raw coal quality testing will be required to confirm ash and coking properties. Down hole geophysics from both the re-logging of holes drilled in 2011 and the holes completed so far in the 2014 programme indicate densities in parts of the coal seam intervals, averaging between 1.3 to 1.4, which suggest moderate to low raw ash levels are expected in those coals, indicative of a possible metallurgical coal product.

 The Nuurstei project is 10 km from the provincial capital of Moron and 160 km to the east of the Aspire Mining’s 100% owned Ovoot metallurgical coal project. A sealed road from the nearest railhead at Erdenet through to Moron will be completed in 2015. The Nuurstei project could also become a user of the Northern Rail Line, a new rail development project earmarked for Northern Mongolia which will link through to export markets.

Edited by Sam Dodson

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/coal/02102014/news-from-aspire-mining%E2%80%99s-coal-operations-1387/