The Vikings used to mine coal on Baffin Island. Iron in Newfoundland.
I think this SK coal may find its way into metallurgical usages because of the new technology of fluid injection, which the Germans found even works with lignite. Not many people in Canada know squat about this. Getting CDN steel makers to try new tech with their labour problems and limited funds, now owned as well by a competitive interest sounds like a non starter. Far be it for GXS to sell that idea. Maybe the Japanese might end up as buyers.
The SK coal is new and exciting supposedly because it is near surface, fairly high grade, in GSX's case wide, and Cretaceous, so supposedly extensive. There is no question that you can draw circles around holes of 1/4 mile or more. So a 100 foot intersection is 28 million tonnes per hole! Right away with two identical holes 1600 metre apart it shows that GXS knew exactly what they were doing. That creates 98 million tons of coal if they were both 100 foot intersections and the beds were flat lying. Tonnage factor here is 25 for SB coal. If we take value at 90 dollars per tonne, they have 8.8 billion dollars established inferred, with only two holes! Could have. Better wait. But that is what I think the market is getting overheated about. How good is that? To put this in perspective, Fording now has 96 million tonnes in reserve at Greenhills. So that is very good. Talk of 1 billion tons of course if "over the top".
mining-technology.com
We need to know Ash, volatiles, fixed carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, sulphur, moisture, specific gravity and calorific value.
Coal in SK and Alberta is not new. Mostly in the south of SK it was lignite, which is still of interest for thermal, with or without carbon sequestestration. In Alberta it was known as deep coal, with seams around 6 to 15 feet and depths from surface to 6000. It has always been called "future" energy.
I am not sure on the attitude of the GXS discovery. I imagine it is flat as that is the basin and I don't think there is much deformation in SK.
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