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() and Noble Group (SGX:N21) have intersected many coal seams in the first ten holes of the 2015 drilling program at their Nuurstei Coking Coal Project in Mongolia.
Near surface coal was intersected in multiple banded coal seam packages with the best being 15.3 metres of coal from 51.4 metres and 9.5 metres of coal from 71.6 metres in hole NURH1023.
Approximately 40 non-core and PQ diamond drill holes are planned to be completed during the drilling program which is expected to be completed during the September 2015 Quarter.
This is targeted at increasing confidence levels in coal seam correlation and establishing a maiden JORC 2012 resource.
Samples collected from core holes will be sent to laboratories to undertake coking coal quality analyses.
Nuurstei Drilling
In July Aspire and Noble mobilised two drill rigs to site and have since then drilled nine non-core drill holes and one diamond core hole.
Intersected coal seams are consistently steeply dipping and banded.
The thick coal packages in NURH1023 are suspected to be structurally thickened by reverse faults that have repeated the coal seams in the drill hole. The exact fault geometry is unknown at this stage.
All proposed diamond drill holes will be drilled to collect coal samples to be sent to laboratories for coal quality analysis. This will provide a representation of coal quality across the deposit.
The results of the core NUDH012 sampled in 2014 suggested the presence of coking coal at Nuurstei.
Nuurstei has an Exploration Target of between 15 million and 25 million tonnes.
The Ekhgoviin Chuluu Joint Venture (ECJV) between Aspire and Noble plan to complete a Scoping Study pending favourable results of the current exploration program.
It considers Nuurstei to have near term development potential given its location just 10 kilometres from the Khuvsgul provincial capital of Moron and within trucking distance to the existing rail head at Erdenet.
The project will also have access to the Erdenet to Ovoot railway within approximately two years of commencement of its construction and thereby become one of the first users of this railway.
Analysis
Results from the first 10 holes at Nuurstei are certainly exciting for given that multiple coal seams were intersected.
There is substantial news flow ahead for the project with further drilling underway and core samples from diamond holes to be sent to the laboratory to confirm if coal coking is present across the deposit.
In addition the ECJV plans to carry out resource calculations following completion of the 40 hole program before potentially carrying out a Scoping Study.
The study will assess the economics of a mining operation initially by road and potentially access to the first section of the Erdenet-Ovoot railway.
Aspire continues to retain an option to buy out Noble’s 50% stake in the ECJV through to March next year.
The company had $4 million in cash and term deposits as at 30th June 2015.
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