The program was originally designed by the mine management to assess coal quality and gas content/gas composition of the presently mined Bulli coal seam as part of the mine’s ongoing 5 to 10 year development plan.
The JV has joined with mine management to deepen, at its cost, the holes to assess the lower unmined seams below the Bulli, namely the Balgownie, Woronora, Wongawilli, Tongarra and Woonona.
The Balgownie is of particular interest in that only a few holes have penetrated this seam in the leases, yet it has been responsible for some large (to 8 million cubic feet of gas/day) outbursts into the mine that have interrupted longwall production on the Bulli seam.
Bulli seam coal is also gassy and the mine presently drains up to 4.5 million cubic feet of gas per day from the seam ahead of mining. Currently another joint venture between Sun
Resources, Apex Energy and EnergyAustralia uses this gas for local power generation near the mine site.
At present a P50 in place estimate of 93 billion cubic feet (recoverable 40 billion cubic feet) of gas has been made for the Bulli, Balgownie and Wongawilli seams.
