Eastern galilee

The Eastern Galilee black coal project, that is also referred to as the Yellow Jacket Project, covers a tenement area of around 4,000 square kilometres. It extends in a south easterly direction from Pentland, midway between Hughenden and Charters Towers, in Queensland.

Two of the Eastern Galilee Project Tenements Contain Farm-In and Joint Venture Arrangements
The project is being progressed by CuestaCoal that holds eight tenements in the area, two of which are Farm-In and joint venture arrangements with QCI (Galilee) Pty Ltd. Farm-ins being an arrangement where the owner of an interest in a mining tenement, usually the farmer, agrees to transfer part of his or her interest to the mining company, if certain monetary payments are made and exploration commitments agreed to.

CuestaCoal's Eastern Galilee Project has Chinese Backing
CuestaCoal is a relative newcomer to Australian coal mining. Its major shareholder being the Chinese state owned energy investment company, Beijing Guoli. The shareholding is held through Beijing Guoli's wholly owned subsidiary, Longluck Investments (Australia) Pty Ltd.

Eastern Galilee Project on Edge of the Galilee Basin
The Eastern Galilee Project is situated along the eastern edge of the Galilee Basin, hence its name. Exploratory drilling was carried out during 2011 and 2012 with CuestaCoal intersecting coal over a 15 square kilometres area that was named the Yellow Jacket Project. This coal seam has been discovered further to the east of what was previously considered to be the Permian Coal boundary. CuestaCoal has drilled 33 chip holes since 2011 as well as five partially cored holes for coal quality and one fully cored hole for palynological and stratigraphic study.

The mining tenements that make up the Eastern Galilee Project are all to the east of the Galilee Basin Coal Measures's recognised boundary, as it has been the aim of the exploration program to identify coal resources to the east of the Late Permian Betts Creek Beds. CuestaCoal is the first coal mining exploration company to explore in this particular region.

Exploration Drilling at Eastern Galilee Project Shows Considerable Promise
During 2012, the exploratory drilling campaign undertaken by CuestaCoal, completed the drilling of 23 open PCD (polycrystalline diamond) holes and five partially cored holes totalling 4,229 metres. The partially cored holes intersected coal seams, as expected, with them showing a similar physical appearance to the lower seams of the Betts Creek Beds Coal Measures.

As a result of the exploratory drilling which has been completed to date by CuestaCoal at its Eastern Galilee Project, it has been determined that the Betts Creek Beds are more widely developed that what was previously believed. If future drilling supports the belief of the existence of separate structural depressions, or infolded coal bearing strata, exists within the CuestaCoal tenements, it could indicate a substantial resource could be delineated and a resource potential of up to 3,000 million tonnes could exist at the project site.

Railway Infrastructure Within Eastern Galilee Reach
The Eastern Galilee project is located north of proposed railway corridors to service the China First, Carmichael and Alpha coal projects and to link them with the Abbott Point Coal Terminal complex. These routes are located from between 50 and 100 kilometres south of the CuestaCoal mining tenements. The Eastern Galilee Project is also within 100 kilometres of the Mt Isa to Townsville railway line.
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