Australian miner Guildford Coal reported an initial JORC Resource of 63.1 million tonnes of coal with coking potential at its South Gobi project in Mongolia.

The South Gobi project, which owns five exploration licences, is located 60 kilometres from the Chinese border station town of Ceke, where coal from Mongolia is transported through to China.

Guildford Coal has filed mining licence applications for EL13780X and EL5262X. The company expects the licenses to be granted before yearend 2011.

The maiden resource contains 38.2 million tonnes in the Indicated category and 24.9 million tonnes in the Inferred category. It reinforces the potential start-up of a 1 to 2 million tonnes per annum open cut mining operation.

The company is likewise completing Scoping Studies for the start-up operation eyeing to begin mining from the North Pit (EL13780X) by the June quarter of 2012. Drilling will continue on the other key tenements in the South Gobi Project to define a JORC Resource for the Central, West and East Pits.

The South Gobi Project is situated 50 kilometres east of two other operating mines and one large coal project with total coal resource estimated around 750 million tonnes.