Guildford Coal edges closer to coal sales from Mongolia mine

Guildford Coal (ASX: GUF) is close to starting coal sales from its Baruun Noyon Uul mine in Mongolia after it was successfully and formally commissioned for operations and sales by the government.

This enables the company to extract coal in readiness for first sale and it is now waiting on final permitting of the coal transport company that will deliver the coal to the coal distribution hub at Ceke, on the China border.

Guildford had in December completed a key 98 kilometre current haul road connecting the Baruun Noyon Uul mine with the coal distribution hub at Ceke, at the China border.

The project consists of five tenements located in the South Gobi Province (Umnigovi Aimag) of the country, which are located around 1,000 kilometres south-west of the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar.

The licenses are well situated to tap the end user market, due to being just 60 kilometres from the Chinese border station of Ceke, where coal from Mongolia is currently transported through to China.

Baruun Noyon Uul – formerly North Pit – has the potential to ramp up to produce in excess of 3 million tonne per annual from an open-cut coking coal operation.

The project is also strategically located 50 kilometres east of Nariin Sukhait which includes South Gobi Resources’ Ovoot Tolgoi mine and the MAK mine, which produce and export coking and thermal coal to customers in China.