Monday, January 7, 2013

Crowsnest Pass major announcement.


Well the press release is a little late this information has been on the blogs for the last couple of days and the Pass Herald facebook site since Saturday but never the less still good news. For more on this story John Pundyk wrote an excellent article available in both the Pass Herald and the Elk Valley Herald. 


Riversdale Resources Limited Enters Into Agreement to Acquire Coking Coal Development Portfolio in Canada
Riversdale Resources Limited, a public unlisted entity based in Sydney, Australia, has entered into an agreement to acquire a portfolio of coal assets from Devon Energy and Consol Energy located in the Crowsnest Pass area of southwest Alberta, Canada.
The portfolio, comprising over 35,000 acres in total, includes the Grassy Mountain Project located near the towns of Blairmore and Coleman and adjacent to a large capacity rail system already established for coal transport to the existing west coast ports of Westshore Terminal near Vancouver and Ridley near Prince Rupert Sound. Grassy Mountain is an advanced project that has been the subject of substantial exploration and feasibility work including approximately 364 drill holes, two trial pits and a 54,000 tonne bulk sample.  Currently Grassy Mountain has a Canadian 43-101 resource of 192 million tonnes and a reserve of 55 million tonnes although Riversdale sees the potential to expand this further.  Additionally, Grassy Mountain is located in a Category 4 zone under the Alberta Coal Development Policy.
 A earlier feasibility study for Grassy Mountain outlined a open pit development plan to produce approximately 2 million tonnes per annum of both metallurgical and thermal coal over a 28 year life with moderate upfront capital and an FOB cash cost for the first 12 years of US$85 – US$90 per tonne. Riversdale has been working with Norwest Corporation from Calgary, McElroy Bryan from Australia and two recognised Australian based coal quality consultants in undertaking its review of the portfolio. As a result, Riversdale has commenced work to evaluate the potential for a 4 million tonne per annum mine producing primarily a hard coking coal with a secondary PCI product. Riversdale believes such a project will be possible through the use of modern coal mining and washing techniques which have advanced significantly since the earlier feasibility work. 
In addition to Grassy Mountain Riversdale has acquired the Bellevue, Adanac and Lynx coal exploration leases which currently contain an additional 160 million tonnes of estimated resources and an extensive package of freehold land accumulated by the vendors over the past 30 years. The portfolio provides Riversdale an exciting opportunity to look at multiple developments in the region which has a long history of coal mining.
Riversdale has entered into an agreement to acquire the coal properties and freehold land assets for a total of US$ 49.5 million (A$ 47.6 million) payable by the end of June 2013.  Of the total amount, approximately US$35 million (A$ 33.6 million) is attributable to the Grassy Mountain Project. 
The Chairman of Riversdale, Michael O'Keeffe stated "the acquisition of the Crowsnest Pass assets concludes an outstanding first year of exploration and development for our company with a targeted program at our Chickaloon project in Alaska identifying a number of promising coking coal seams. The Crowsnest Pass assets will propel Riversdale into becoming a major force in high quality metallurgical coal production from multiple assets.”
Crowsnest Pass Mayor Bruce Decoux is thrilled with today’s announcement.  “One of this Council’s priorities has been to broaden our economic base and strengthen our local economy.”  The Municipality’s hard work with Riversdale is certain to generate great economic spin off for our community and region,” says Decoux  
Over the last few months Crowsnest Pass Mayor, Council and Administration have been working to support Riversdale and to ensure confidence in the strength and vibrancy of our community.  “We are confident that the support we provided to Riversdale helped pave the way for this initiative to come to fruition” said Decoux.  “We are excited that the Crowsnest Pass will soon be home to a highly reputable international coal mining group and that all citizens in our community will reap benefits,” added Decoux.
Background on Riversdale
Riversdale is an Australian public unlisted company with approximately 70 shareholders. The company was created by the former senior management of Riversdale Mining Limited, an ASX company acquired by Rio Tinto Limited in 2011. Riversdale currently has a 10 year lease over the Chickaloon Coking Coal Project in Alaska and is looking to develop a significant steel making materials business with a focus on high grade metallurgical coal in stable sovereign environments.
The board and senior management of Riversdale comprises:
Michael O'Keeffe (Chairman) - previously Chairman of Riversdale Mining Limited and former Managing Director of Glencore Australia
Steve Mallyon (Managing Director) - previously Managing Director of Riversdale Mining Limited and former Managing Director of RBC Capital Markets Australia
Gary Lawler (Non Executive Director) - former Director of Riversdale Mining Limited and Senior M&A Partner of Ashurst 
Tony Redman (Non Executive Director) - former Director of Riversdale Mining Limited and former Chairman of Anglo American Coal
Anthony Martin (Chief Financial Officer) - former Riversdale Mining Limitada Country Manager (Mozambique)
Russell Dann (President, Riversdale North America) - former Regional Director of Queensland Government Mines and Energy Agency)
 Steve Mallyon.                                          Anthony Martin
Managing Director                                     Chief Financial Officer
A media availability is scheduled for Tuesday, January 8th between 10 am and 12 noon at the Municipal Administrative offices.  Mayor Bruce Decoux will be available to speak on this announcement.
Steve Mallyon from Riversdale Resources will be available to speak to media via telephone on January 8th between 2 pm and 5 pm, mountain standard time at +61 407 464 529.
The Municipality will be hosting a welcoming reception in early February at which time  Riversdale Resources representative will be in attendance and available to speak with media.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I told you guys. Bruce and this council would save this community.

Misty Schitz

Anonymous said...

Too funny, the mare and council had absolutely nothing to do with this, but as usual, he spouts his propaganda and the fools bow and and praise him like the leader of a cult (see above). Hopefully it's good news...2013 is starting pretty good, only 10 months until we are all free of Adolf

Anonymous said...

Maybe, never can tell. People do have short memories.

Anonymous said...

Is it true that council had absolutely nothing to do with it. Where is that information found?

Anonymous said...

Just speculating on the effect of this over the next few years (pardon my negativity):

There may be a speculative real estate bubble, but not much will be built until we know it's a go.

"moderate upfront capital" suggests they are thinking of trucking coal down Grassy Mountain road. (Would the screening and washing be done at the mine or at the rail-road?)

Uncertainty about the location of the rail-road loading facility (tipple?) and transport route will put many developments on hold, as we already have with uncertainty about the highway route. Tourism and recreation businesses will be re-thinking, as will retirees and weekenders.

The "Quebec manufacturer" may be thinking, "Whoa, we'll be competing with mining industry wages!".
________________________________________________________

The ERCB has a cool "Coal Mine Map Viewer" linked on this page below "Related Information". The red areas = underground, purple = surface.

Anonymous said...

Anon 6:28 asked:

Is it true that council had absolutely nothing to do with it. Where is that information found?

You can go to the "media availability" tomorrow and ask Himself's "Open and Transparent" Worship what they had to do with it.

He will say "a lot, but I can't tell you because it is a BIG SECRET".

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

From RIVERSrun to RIVERSdale how ironic.

Clearwater said...

Re 05:48 post--- not to add fuel to the fire, but the freehold land package in Passburg and the Adanac deposits add a new dimension as to where Riversdale can set up loading facilities. Downwind is better than upwind of the communities for loading I'd say. To them "moderate" costs for infrastructure means not building a railroad, dam for power, town and roads. They leave that to the Chinese.

Will be an interesting meeting tonight. The Ratepayers executive has 3 of its leaders living in the Adanac area -- on the doorstep of the coal deposit. Byron Creek, No. 5 and Adanac Strip old mines are all set to go for drilling exploration. Now we knowwhy all of the helicopters were flying around the last few years. Not for beetle or fire patrol, or oil/gas seismic only it appears.

Get ready for a dynamic shift in the economic development of the Crowsnest Pass. Who needs an Economic Development Officer when we have such a dynamic Municipal crew. And you can take that with a sack of coal!

The new Crowsnest Pass motto will be "Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink".

Anonymous said...

So, where the ratepayers live is more important than anyone else. Um, don't think so. They are actually really starting to bug me.

Anonymous said...

There is no question the impact that a mine would have on the economic out look for the Crowsnest Pass. The Mayor and his crew can spin this any way they want and reap the political mileage out of it. This is long term a minimum of five years and more likely ten. And no that is not being negative its being realistic.
The sad part of this is that these guys creditability is so low that people around town are not taking this too seriously. My fingers are crossed and hoping for the best.
Now we need to get back to the short term future of the Crowsnest Pass, what about the hotel? the Quebec manufacturer those are things that can be done much faster than a coal mine.

Anonymous said...

Dean here is an excellent article from the Edmonton Journal. It
will give you and your readers some sense of what is involved with starting a mine in Alberta.

http://www.joconl.com/article/id51768

Mike

Anonymous said...

There was a plan to annex MD Ranchlands, purportedly to get their hands on the MD's lucrative "Linear Property" (pipelines) assessment. This didn't make sense to me - these are spread over the MD, were they seriously thinking of annexing all the way to Chain Lakes?

Recently they were talking about only part of the MD (I can't remember where I read this). This didn't make sense either, since it would be a small percentage increase to CNP's tax base and we would have to provide municipal services to the area.

Now it all falls into place. I wonder if Minister Griffiths is in on this?

Anonymous said...

This may sound a little silly but I can not see any reference to the MD of Ranchlands in the press release?
Do I have my geography wrong on this??????

Jeff

Anonymous said...

This will help the real estate market in the Pass. It is a good thing just hope these guys respect the beautiful environment that we all enjoy down here.

Anonymous said...

Remember all those people celebrating the big news just a few years back? Remember how quickly everybody jumped on the band wagon? and later off.
People lets not loose site that this is not BHP or Rio Tinto it is a start up company that has assets composed of a 10 year coal lease in Alaska and a conditional purchase of coal rights in the Crowsnest Pass nothing more at this time.
I am not saying it isn't going to work I pray it does we need it in the worse way. The minute I see that first load of coal going down the tracks I will be so happy.

John