Location
The Bonshaw Project is located in northern New South Wales in the Ashford Region. Ashford is located 60 km north of Inverell and the Queensland border is located a further 40 km to the north.
Geology
The Ashford Coal Measures are present throughout the Bonshaw Project area. They are up to 300m thick and occur as a discontinuous, narrow faulted slice adjacent to the Severn Thrust over a distance of more than 60 km.
Two seams have been recognised: the Ashford Seam and the Bonshaw Seam.
Ownership
The holder of the Bonshaw Project's tenements is Whitehaven Coal (100%).
Tenements
The Bonshaw Project comprised four exploration licenses: EL 6450, EL 6585, EL 6586, and EL 6587. These tenements covered an area totalling 204 km2.
Exploration
Coal was first discovered in the area in 1884. Around 2,000 t was produced up until 1925.
Between 1948 and 1950 the Bureau of Mineral Resources undertook a drilling programme and discovered coal at several localities. The Joint Coal Board subsequently undertook a further drilling programme and found that the Ashford Seam was up to 16m thick.
White Industries Limited drilled around 160 holes in the region during the period 1976 to 1987.
An open cut mine was developed in 1959 to supply coal to the Ashford Power Station and operated up to 1990. The coal quality was predominantly coking.
Development Concept
The initial concept for development was an open cut operation producing at the rate of 0.3 - 0.5 Mtpa.