Rio Tinto Coal Australia has declared a significant increase of its managed thermal coal reserves and resources in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales, Australia, compared to the previous estimates reported in Rio Tinto’s 2013 Annual Report.
Ore Reserves increase by 546 million tonnes (Mt), from 1331 Mt to 1877 Mt.
Total Mineral Resources exclusive of Ore Reserves increase by 369 Mt, from 2349 Mt to 2718 Mt.
Rio Tinto Coal Australia managing director Chris Salisbury said “The coal assets managed by Coal & Allied in the Hunter Valley are truly world class and offer a large, contiguous footprint within the most attractive sections of the coal district.
“An extensive drilling program over many decades means we have high confidence in our increased understanding of our coal assets and their quality, which is characterised by shallow, thick seams with little geological faulting.
“This discovery of greater coal reserves and resources is the result of more than a year’s work and forms part of our wider efforts to deliver greater value to our shareholders. We continue to examine our asset base for further opportunities.
“Our extensive reserve and resource base, further amplified by this latest announcement, provides many options to sustain and grow our business in the Hunter Valley for many decades to come.”
The update is based on a rigorous examination of all of the Hunter Valley leases that involved:
- Analysing a vast legacy dataset gathered over decades from approximately 13,000 drill holes
- Transforming the strategic mine planning processes and tools used to estimate reserves
- Adopting more efficient resource estimation methods