12th Sep 2006 08:04
Churchill Mining plc12 September 2006 12 September 2006 CHURCHILL MINING Plc ("Churchill" or "the Company") Sendawar Coal Project, Indonesia - Update Commissioning of second drill rig brought forward to accelerate drilling programme The Directors of Churchill Mining Plc (AIM: CHL) announce that recent geologicalfield results at the Sendawar thermal coal project in Kalimantan, Indonesia,have been particularly encouraging and that, as a result, the commissioning of asecond drill rig has been brought forward to accelerate the explorationprogramme. The Company expects its drilling contractor, PT Maxidrill Indonesia, to completebuilding the rig at its Jakarta workshop within two weeks, ready for fieldcommissioning at the end of the month. Churchill already has a drill rig at site which has completed four stratagraphicholes necessary to aid in the geological understanding of the Sendawar projectbefore the drilling of actual coal targets begins. This rig has now beenrelocated and Churchill's geologists have begun the drilling of specific coaloutcrop areas. Shortly, Churchill's geological advisors shall decide whether the newlycommissioned drill rig will be deployed either to expand drilling on the currentcoal outcrop targets or be moved to drill in the north of the Sendawar project. Whilst Churchill's ultimate project target is an eventual JORC-compliantresource of 200 million tonnes, the first resource milestone is a target of fivemillion tonnes. At this threshold, the Company believes it should be in aposition to begin trial mining. Any profits from this operation will bere-circulated back to the project by way of an expanded exploration programme. Churchill will send its drill core to an internationally accredited assaylaboratory in Samarinda for independent analysis. This process, coupled withthe targeting of the prospective locations, is being overseen by SRK Consulting,which was appointed technical supervisor to the project in June 2006. ENDS Enquiries: Churchill Mining Plc Corporate Synergy Parkgreen CommunicationsPaul Mazak/ James Hamilton Olly Cairns Justine Howarth / Brendan McNamara+61 (0)8 9388 0377 +44 (0) 20 7448 4400 +44 (0) 20 7493 [email protected]@churchillmining.com Notes to editors Churchill Mining Plc listed on AIM in April 2005. It has two projects and inearly 2006 raised GBP5.25 million to acquire and explore the Sendawar coalproject. South Woodie Woodie The South Woodie Woodie project covers approximately 490 square kilometres inthe East Pilbara region of Western Australia. Owned via Churchill Mining'swholly-owned subsidiary, Planet Mining Pty Ltd, the project sits approximately400km southeast of Port Hedland in the highly prospective Pilbara manganeseprovince. Churchill owns the project 100%. The company recently completed a 6600line kilometre airborne magnetics program at South Woodie Woodie as part oftarget generation program. To date much of the project area has never beenexplored due to the presence of surface cover. Sendawar Churchill Mining's Sendawar project in Kalimantan covers more than 1,000 squarekilometres of prospective ground and lies in close proximity to two operatingopen-cut mines: Thai miner Banpu's newly commissioned Trubaindo operation, whichwill be shortly producing at a rate of approximately 6 million tonnes per annum(tpa); and the privately-owned Gunung Bayan mine which has been operating since1998 and produces approximately 3.4 million tpa. Coal from these mines istransported via barge via the Mahakam River to the port of Samarinda. TheSendawar project is located approximately 50km from the Mahakam River. In June 2006 Churchill announced the first test results, albeit early stage andlimited, from outcrop samples gathered at Sendawar; these confirmed the presenceof high calorific coal, i.e a calorific value above 6,300 Kcal/kg. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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