Mongolian-focused coal exploration company, Aspire Mining, has announced total JORC coal resources of 12.85 million t at its Nuurstei coal project.

The Nuurstei project is owned by the Ekhgoviin Chuluu Joint Venture with Noble Group. It is located in northern Mongolia with transpot links to the city of Erdenet and connection to the Trans Mongolian Railway.

Preliminary coal quality testing indicated the widespread presence of hard coking coal at Nuurstei.

“While tonnages falling into the JORC resource catagories are modest, the Nuurstei project presents as a commercial-scale pilot project for logistics and market development for Ovoot and other coking coals from northern Mongolia,” said Aspire’s Managing Director, David Paull.

“It can also provide commercial-scale rail freight cargoes onto the Northern Rail Line to iron our logistical teething problems before the much larger volumes from the Ovoot coking coal project need to be dealt with.”

Aspires’s larger Ovoot project is located about 160 km west of Nuurstei. The company is also developing a rail link to the projects – known as the Northern Rail Line – through its subsidiary, Northern Railways.