Amberley

The Amberley Coal project near Ipswich in Queensland's Clarence Moreton Basin, is being developed by CuestaCoal. In September 2012 CuestaCoal upgraded the projects inferred JORC coal resource by 54.7 million tonnes. CuestaCoal is looking into the feasibility of developing an Amberley open pit black coal mine to exploit the low stripping ratio shallow deposit of thermal coal that exist at the site.

The Amberley Project is Close to Railway Infrastructure
The Amberley Project is located inside eight kilometres from the already operating railway infrastructure that could be utilised to transport the coal from the Amberley site to the port at Brisbane, a distance of 80 kilometres, for exporting to the company's overseas customers.

Amberley Project is Part of the Walloon Coal Measures
The Amberley Project consists of 12 sub-blocks that cover an area of 36.5 square kilometres. The project is centred five kilometres from the Ebenezer mine site and eight kilometres south east of the Jeebropilly coal mine. Before its closure the Ebenezer coal mine had produced both export and domestic quality thermal coal. Coal from the Clarence Moreton Basin are branded as being Walloon Coal Measures with the Amberley deposit existing in eight seam groups, with seams varying in thicknesses from 1.9 metres to 0.1 metres.

Amberley Coal Development Company CuestaCoal is Supported by Beijing Guoli
CuestaCoal, a relative newcomer to the Australian coal mining industry, has Chinese state owned energy investment company Beijing Guoli as its majority shareholder, through Beijing Guoli's wholly owned subsidiary, Longluck Investments (Australia) Pty Ltd.

Drilling at Amberley Coal Project Grounds for Optimism
During mid 2012 CuestaCoal completed three cored and 14 open drilling campaigns that totalled 2,040 metres at the Amberley Project site. This activity complimented the 44 historic drill holes and as a result created a need to revise previous resource calculations to 54.7 million tonnes. The raw coal quality that was intersected was in line with expectations and with washing produced an export quality coal. Work still to be carried out will include step out drilling that will expand the coal resource even further. Other work to be done will involve infill drilling to upgrade the resource category while optimising stripping ratios, as well as large diameter coring to allow the carrying out of washability tests and to assess geotechnical parameters.

A number of companies have explored the area around the Amberley Project since the 1970's with many reports of coal seams being discovered at shallow depths of just two to three metres. In 1993, Idemitsu South Queensland Coal drilled a 126 metre hole that recorded multiple coal intersections at the site.

The Amberley project being developed by CuestaCoal is situated near the small community of the same name, Amberley, located to the south of the South East Queensland regional centre of Ipswich. Amberley is the home of Australia's largest Air Force Base and the Queensland Bureau of Meteorology. It is also close to the Ipswich suburbs of Loamside, Churchill and Deebing Heights. Large scale open cut mining of Walloon coal didn't eventuate until the middle of the 1970's in the Rosewood area of the Moreton Bay Basin. In the 1980's two coal mines were developed near Amberley and a open cut mine began production in the Surat Basin in 1995. However, up until now no substantial coal mining operation has been established in the area to supply coal for the export market.
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