Viking Mines has commenced its drilling programme at the Berkh Uul coal project in northern Mongolia, the company has said in a statement.
The programme is designed to “infill and extend the existing drill coverage”, starting with the northeast of the licence area where there is pre-existing drilling.
From there, the drilling will the progress south, targeting extensions to the deposit to add to the current resource of 38 million t. Drill core samples will be transported to the country’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, for testing.
The Berkh Uul project is located about 400 km north of Ulaanbaartar in the Orkhon-Selege coal district and within 40 km of rail access into Russian offtake markets.
Locally, cement and power plants are also interested in coal from the project, due to its low ash and relatively high calorific value. Four memoranda of understanding are currently in place for the supply of coal to local industrial end users.
Written by Jonathan Rowland.