Union Coal Project
The Union Coal Project is
located in the southeast of the Tov Province of
Mongolia known as the
The Union Coal Project area is
situated 35 km east of the nearest small town called
Bayan Soum, and around 113 km southeast of
The area has undergone regional
exploration drilling and the results indicate a large
shallow potential coal deposit mine amenable to open pit
mining methods. A total of 14 boreholes, with depths
ranging from 65 m to 150 m, were completed during the
previous exploration programme. The boreholes are
located along three grid lines 5 km apart. The distance
between boreholes along each grid line is around 0.5 km.
Part of the Union Coal Project
area (around 25%) has been depleted by opencut mining.
There is no information regarding the production from
the operation.
The coal seams in the Union Coal
Project area are shallow, gently dipping (less than 25
degrees) and subcrop near the surface. The project area
is within the north-eastern part of the Tsaidam-Nuur
Synclonorium System. Based on the regional geological
interpretation, the coal bearing formation of Tsaidam
extends throughout and beyond the licence area. The
seams predominately comprise of dull coal and are
considered suitable for the thermal market.
The area consists of at least two
main seam zones of which the lowest seam is
significantly thick. The seams appear to be lenticular
and split across the deposit. The thickness of each seam
ranges from less than 1 m to greater than 20 m, and are
generally interbedded with several stone bands.
Based on a report prepared by the Mongolian Government, it was found that the yield of coal from the seam zone in the Union Coal area ranges from 90% to 92% with ash content ranging from 9.8% to 12%. The nature of coal appears to be a medium ash, low energy coal.
Based on its field observations
and the previous exploration data, the independent
technical experts, SRK, concluded that the Union Coal
Project area potentially contains a large coal deposit
amenable for open cut extraction with strip ratios
averaging 3:1. Polo