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88娱乐城
NuCoal lodged the assessment lease with Industry & Investment New South Wales, with the application for the lease of the area covered by exploration licence 7270 accepted for processing.
EL 7270 consists of NuCoal鈥檚 Doyles Creek underground mine and the associated Doyles Creek training school.
Applying for an assessment lease is required in order to progress towards securing the rights to mine in the Doyles Creek area.
To date, NuCoal has completed a concept study of EL 7270 and is finalising a prefeasibility study.
The company also conducted the associated environmental assessments that were necessary to progress through the NSW planning system.
NuCoal and its subsidiaries spent in excess of $17 million on these activities and committed a further $9 million to secure strategic property within the Doyles Creek area.
The application for an assessment lease has been divided into two separate documents due to 112 hectares of the project area having the possibility of falling within the Native Title area.
NuCoal managing director Glen Lewis said lodging the assessment lease for Doyles Creek marked another step forward in the development of the project.
鈥淭his is yet another significant milestone for the project,鈥� he said.
鈥淭he project has achieved all the required milestones to be considered suitable for an assessment lease application and provides the best possible future security of tenure for the shareholders of NuCoal.鈥�
The Doyles Creek project, located in the Hunter Valley region, is estimated to produce 5 million tonnes per annum.
In recent months the project encountered numerous hurdles, including facing the NSW Land and Environment Court after a blind farmer refused to allow NuCoal access to his land for Doyles Creek drilling.
Meanwhile, the Doyles Creek project is under an inquiry by the Independent Commission Against Corruption, following the awarding of the exploration licence in 2008 by former Labor minister Ian Macdonald.
The associated Doyles Creek training school is being set up to address the critical skills shortages in the Hunter Valley.
The training centre is tipped to create 300 direct jobs.
