(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors - Australia) Lemur Resources (ASX: LMR) has received the final batch of core sample results from its Imaloto Coal Project in Madagascar that confirms the coal can be beneficiated to a 67% export grade thermal coal, making the product highly sought after in the seaborne market.
When the Main Seam is beneficiated via a single stage wash a secondary product was also produced displaying qualities suitable as feedstock for a domestic coal fired power station is also produced.
This would equate to a theoretical yield of 100% for the Main Seam.
Meanwhile, wash table analyses of the Upper and Top seams indicate both seams have the potential to generate a product suitable for power station feedstock with yields of 74.9% and 81.4% respectively.
A Lower Seam, which lies below the Main Seam, was encountered for the first time during the recent Western Drilling Program.
While the Lower Seam is expected to add to the Imaloto Project's global resource, to date insufficient work has been undertaken for quantification.
Blair Sergeant, managing director, commented: "The quality of the Imaloto Main Seam has been confirmed by the consolidated wash table analysis and makes our product highly sought after in the seaborne market which is very pleasing.
"Our focus now shifts to understanding in greater detail the operational and capital expenditure side of the Project as we look at how best to commercialise the asset."
Once the final batch of results has been incorporated into the geological model, Lemur will be in a position to upgrade the current JORC Inferred resource, which will be closely followed by the release of results from the Scoping Studies currently nearing completion.
Since exploration activities began in 2009, Lemur has analysed a total of 290 samples, 120 of which relate to the current phase three program.
These latest laboratory results further confirm Lemur's Imaloto Coal Project contains a quality coal product that would be highly sought after by the power generation markets of India and China.
Strategic export location
India's growing demand for power and large scale grid expansion is driving continued demand for imported thermal coal, and Madagascar is well located to capitalise on these opportunities.
Madagascar is ideally placed to export coal to India, which plans to expand its coal fired power generation capacity by about 60 gigawatts by 2013. India's supply shortfall is estimated at over 100 million tonnes by 2012.
The Imaloto Coal Project, which covers 81.5 square kilometres over five permits, is located in the Imaloto Coal Basin, the northern-most coal field in the greater Sakoa Basin of South West Madagascar.
It is located around 30 kilometres northwest of the Sakoa Basin, where coal mining has previously been carried out.
The project hosts an Inferred JORC Resource of 176 million tonnes of coal, with the phase three drilling program targeting an upgrade to the high confidence Measured category.
The geology in the region is similar to that of the Witbank coal field in South Africa and the Gondwana coal fields of India.
Outcropping coal measures extend for a distance of around 15 kilometres, immediately west of the north to south flowing Imaloto River.
Imaloto is favourably located near the existing port of Tulear and adjacent to the proposed Soalara Port, where infrastructure planning is underway to provide a mineral bulk handling export facility.
Lemur is well funded with A$20.43 million at the end of the June 2012 quarter, which equates to around $0.15 cash per share, well above the company's last traded share price of $0.085.
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