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AMCI (Alpha) Pty Ltd (AMCI) is the holder of Exploration Permit for Coal (EPC) 1180 “Wha Project”. The tenement was initially granted to Alpha Coal Pty Ltd on 18 December 2008, with AMCI (Alpha) becoming a 50% registered holder in the tenement on 29 August 2012 and acquiring Alpha Coal’s interest on 7 February 2019. Since the initial grant, the tenement has been renewed on seven occasions, with the current period of renewal expiring on 17 December 2022. EPC 1180 as originally granted comprised 152 sub-blocks with progressive reductions in tenement extent to the current 21 sub-blocks. EPC 1180, in combination with EPC 1049 and Mining Lease Application (MLA) 70453, forms the proposed South Galilee Coal Project (SGCP). EPC 1180 partly provides the pre-requisite tenure for MLA 70453 and, until the MLA is granted, will be maintained by the holder.

Exploration in the area incorporating the SGCP began in 2008 with the earliest drilling successfully locating a substantial coal resources within the north of EPC 1049, extending east into EPC 1180. After multiple phases of follow-up drilling, in 2011 a JORC-compliant resource of 1,179 million tonnes of thermal coal was defined, and this resource area plus surrounding buffer is now the subject of MLA 70453.

Over the period from 2012 to early 2016, various factors combined to initiate a significant downturn in the resources sector with a number of coal mines closing and others being placed on ‘care and maintenance’, and miners and explorers drastically cutting capital spending, especially on exploration. During this same period, AMCI (Alpha)’s joint venture partner, Alpha Coal (a subsidiary of Bandanna Energy), was placed into administration and liquidators appointed, with this matter not finalized until AMCI’s purchase of Alpha Coal’s interest in early 2019. Given the extent of understanding of the resource and the aforementioned reasons, no new ground exploration has been undertaken in EPC 1049 since 2012, with activities undertaken during the current reporting period primarily associated with the continuing analysis on the rail options from the SGCP to the Port of Gladstone as required to support the initial (Epsilon) stage of SGCP development; the evaluation of both the financial and technical viability of these solutions and, to the extent practicable due to COVID 19 concerns and restrictions, the extension the baseline groundwater and surface water dataset for the SGCP, primarily in EPC 1049.

Pursuant to section 141(1)(f) of the Queensland Mineral Resources Act 1989 (MR Act), this Annual Report summarises the exploration activities undertaken by AMCI (Alpha) during the tenement’s twelfth year of tenure.