New Age Exploration plc (NAE) has received approval for a further conditional underground licence for a coking coal mine in Lochinvar, Scotland.
LICENCES
The Coal Authority received the Australian company’s application on 12 May 2020 and issued and approved licence CA11/UND/0192/N for Lochinvar Central on 21 January 2022.
NAE’s 100% owned entire project comprises three adjacent exploration and conditional underground mining licences known as Lochinvar [Central], Lochinvar North and Lochinvar South.
The miner now has four conditional underground licences in Lochinvar South (1), Lochinvar North (1) and Lochinvar Central (2) and exploration licences for Lochinvar South (1) and Lochinvar North (1).
The National Coal Board began exploration at Lochinvar during the 1950s.
NAE acquired the Lochinvar licence in 2012 and drilled an initial four cored drill holes during 2013 and a further six holes in 2014.
In October 2014, NAE completed a scoping study which confirmed the potential for a low cost long life 1.9Mtpa long wall mining project to deliver 1.4Mpta coking coal.