Junior coal miner MetroCoal Ltd (ASX: MTE) issued clarifications on Tuesday that the company has yet to finalise its actual resource estimate on its Columboola project in central Queensland following statements from its Chinese partner that showed estimates based merely on historic and publicly accessed data.

Company chief executive Mike O'Brien reaffirmed that MetroCoal has yet to release any Columboola estimates that comply with JORC code, Australia's mineral reporting code.

Also, his colleague, chief operating officer and company secretary Theo Psaros told AAP that the information furnished by China National Coal Group Corp (China Coal) could also be found on a number of Chinese websites and in Courier Mail, which is being circulated in Queensland.

In an earlier 2009 prospectus, MetroCoal declared that it was targeting an exploration goal of between 830 million tonnes and 1165 million tonnes of thermal coal for the Columboola project site, figures which were predominantly suited for underground mining.

MetroCoal said that its joint venture terms with China Coal would give the Chinese company up to 51 percent of stakes in the Columboola project on Surat Basin in exchange for a $30 million expenditure commitment that the foreign company is set to provide.

As the markets closed on the same day, MetroCoal shares were trading at 33.5 cents, gaining a bit at half a cent of 1.52 percent from previous trading session.