Following this approval, the company is set to begin a 70 hole HQ core drilling program totaling 7,000 meters over a 1,000 hectare prospective area by the end of April 2013.
About 19 outcrops were identified in Block 9, with the most important of these being a 9 to 12 metre vertical outcropping seam. It is over a strike length of 4.5km by 1.5km wide.
During an earlier drilling program involving 12 holes, block 9 returned a 9 meter thick seam in line with regional government coal surveys of the area.
Indus Coal has, meanwhile, has set an initial exploration target of about 80 million to 100 million tonnes of coal in block 9.
