The Project

Enthalpy was engaged by a major resources client to help study a greenfield investment opportunity involving the potential to extract a significant energy coal resource from under a >300 square kilometre exploration lease area for domestic and/or export markets.

The configuration of this complex multiple-faceted opportunity involves studying several mining areas, coal seams, mining methods and rates, and alternatives for saleable coal products. Challenges include balancing environmental responsibility and rural farming community expectations against shareholders’ interests while meeting our client’s demanding timeframe and formal investment review criteria.

The Assignment

Enthalpy was requested to provide key people to lead the Owners Study Team, coordinate the study program and produce key deliverables to a tight timetable while managing contractors, consultants, and the Owners’ own specialist staff for this complex multi-year study.

With a total mining project lifecycle nearing a decade the Selection or Pre-Feasibility phase study objective is to determine and recommend the single most valuable investment and project/asset configuration while balancing environmental and community needs.

The Outcome – The study advances in a disciplined way to the client’s timeframe while progressively filtering to eliminate unviable or low-value alternatives and carefully choose the optimal configuration of each element e.g. mining area, method, rates, processing, infrastructure, product specification. The modularised evaluation modelling and methods of selecting the highest value alternative allows the client to progressively filter while also identifying and retaining staged future expansion options.