Mantle Mining has increased the company’s coal exploration footprint after being granted the Thorpdale Exploration Licence in southeast Victoria.

Thorpdale is one of three exploration licenses recently applied for by the company in the Gippsland Basin and sits adjacent to the company’s Latrobe Valley Coal Project.

Mantle Mining has targeted seam extensions from historic black and brown coal mines at Thorpdale where the company seeks to define new black coal deposits as well as upgrade technology to develop domestic and export coal market opportunities.

The remaining two licenses are currently subject to the standard Native Title advertisement processes.

According to the Australian Government's - the Australian Mines Atlas, Australian brown coal deposits are tertiary in age and range from about 15 million to about 50 million years old, with the main deposits located in Victoria.

Smaller deposits occur in the Bacchus Marsh, Altona and Anglesea areas of Victoria, in the St Vincents and Murray Basins and around Pidinga in South Australia, in the Murray Basin in New South Wales and Victoria, at Waterpark Creek near Rockhampton in Queensland, and at Scaddan, O'Sullivans and Balladonia in the south east of Western Australia.

(Sourced from Proactive Investors)