Aviva Corporation Ltd shares closed up 11 cents, or 15 per cent higher, to 81 cents today after the company announced an initial resource estimate of 1.28 billion tonnes of coal at its Mmamantswe Coal Project in Botswana.
The result is a major resource boost for the integrated energy company and is more than double the 600Mt target proposed in April 2007 when the prospecting licences were granted.
Aviva chief executive Lindsay Reed said the initial resource estimate highlighted the potential of the project, where Aviva has been investigating the merit of a 1,500MW power station.
"The resource estimate affirms the Mmamantswe Project as very low strip ratio open pit thermal coal deposit, with the potential to supply the six million tonnes per annum required to support the 1,500MW power project," Mr Reed said.
"The in situ tonnage of 1.3 billion tonnes significantly exceeds the 600 million target set by the company, and is a major milestone in the development of the project," he said.
A new drilling program to upgrade the deposit to reserve is currently being planned to commence in late March.
