Expansion plans proposed for Division Mountain

Expansion plans may be in order at the Division Mountain coal project in the Yukon.

The drill-indicated, undiluted, minable resource is now estimated at 31.7 million tonnes of Volatile Bituminous “B” coal, substantially higher than the previous estimate of 12.1 million tonnes.

Situated 90 km northwest of Whitehorse, the project is owned by Cash Resources (VSE), which is investigating the possibility of developing a coal-fired power plant on site. The resource’s export potential is also under study.

Raw coal quality analyses returned an average of 2.42% residual moisture, 28.45% ash, 25.79% volatile matter, 43.18% fixed carbon and 0.43% sulphur, with a calorific value of 5216 cal/g.

A $3.5-million exploration program, utilizing two drills and an excavator, was expected to have been under way in late March. The objective is to expand tonnage to at least 100 million.

The resource occurs over a 5-km strike length, primarily along the southern portion of the gently north-plunging Cairnes syncline which lies on the east flank of the much larger Division Mountain syncline.

Trenching and drilling have tested less than one-tenth of the prospective areas within the synclines, and no work has been done on two other coal occurrences (within a third syncline, to the northeast).