Practical Aspects of Estimation and

Reporting of Coal Resources

Can New Standards Improve Current Practice?

Sue Border
Principal Consultant

Tom Bradbury
Project Manager - Coal

www.geosmining.com

METALS EXPLORATION | INDUSTRIAL MINERALS | ENERGY RESOURCES | TENEMENTS MANAGEMENT

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Coal & most solid minerals,
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Key services:
Independent reports
Resources
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This Talk

 Will cover
– Changes, and more changes: JORC 2012, and new Australian
Coal Guidelines
– Examples of historic poor practice
– Potential effects of the changed Standards/Guidelines
– Recommendations for Improvements

– Focussed on public reporting of resources, not inventory coal

Resource Estimation Workflow

Data Prep, Check/reject

Validation & anomalies
Acceptance
Correlation and Blue – potential for
seam structure
major error
Statistical
Review
Mining factors
& assumptions

Determination of cutoff
parameters and
constraints
Estimate
Resources
Resource
Reporting &
classification
Model
Handover
 Why update? - Some bad apples

Some of the reasons some changes were required……

Inclusion of very thin and/or very deep coal seams

Inclusion of dubious historic data without adequate

checking

Spotted dogs

Reports ignoring the big issue

JORC 2012 – Changes affecting
Coal Resources

 Mandatory Table 1 – not designed for coal –

Some required information not critical, but minimum seam
thickness not specifically mentioned.
 “Reasonable prospects” now defined as over 50% -
implications for stranded coal, low rank coal, etc
 Restrictions or cautionary statements if using inferred in
development studies
 Should not mention coking or metallurgical until analyses
show coking or PCI properties (JORC guideline to clause 44)
– which analyses?

 Also note - JORC takes priority over coal guidelines

Have the JORC2012 changes helped?

Yes – increased disclosure

Yes, some resources materially decreased

More information – information overload, some

Table 1 information not material for coal?
No, LESS information on development
aspects now available on early stage
projects
Policing – enforcement, but is there
understanding of real issues?
 Purpose of the 2003 Australian Coal
Guidelines?
To outline methodology and best industry practice when estimating
Inventory Coal, Resources and Reserves.

 Prescriptive on spacing
 Little guidance on how.
2014 GUIDELINES INTENT

Provide guidance for good practice, reasonable

prospects, define Inventory Coal

Provide a variety of assessment tools (not just

suggested maximum distances between points of
observation)

Focus on competency of the Competent Person

Changes were necessary & should help

 New Guidelines:
– Much more helpful discussion
– Onus on CP to justify their decisions geologically.
 Discussion of techniques very helpful
eg geostatistics, sample history, RD corrections, critical data
 Reduce the current prescriptive approach
(SHOULD kill the Spotted Dog!)

 JORC2012 should ensure fewer published resources

that will never be mined.
Issues not yet addressed

 No discussion of what competence really means

(eg 1 year coal, 10 years minerals?)
 Won’t assist the less experienced or the solo CP
 Opens way for wider diversity of estimates for same
deposit
 No guidance on how to treat questionable data
 More public data may not assist communication

 Neither JORC nor guidelines really ensure

CPs are really competent.
RECOMMENDATIONS

Examples of good practice may help

Better guidance on economic assessment

Peer Review

• Reviewer should be competent.

• Should interview CP, ask re data checks
• Review documentation and model
• Reviewer should sign off and comment if
necessary
• Not expected to be full audit
• Typically 0.5 to 1 day’s work
One final tip: Poor reporting practice can
lead to many pitfalls….…
For more information or
specific advice……

Contact Sue Border or Tom Bradbury on (02) 9929 6868

www.geosmining.com