Operations
Tasmanian Oil Shale Project (100%)
Boss Energy's Tasmanite oil shale project is located between Latrobe and Railton, 10 kilometres south-west of the port of Devonport in Northern Tasmania with excellent access to existing infrastructure (port and roads).
The Latrobe oil project has a JORC indicated resource of 42 million tonnes of Tasmanite oil shale of which approximately 6 million tonnes is at less than 20 metres depth and amenable to open cut mining methods. An additional JORC compliant inferred resource of 30 million tonnes of Tasmanite oil shale is estimated.
The Tasmanite oil shale horizon within EL 20/2004 has already produced 1.13 million litres of oil from historical underground mining operations. Historical drilling campaigns have demonstrated a continuity of the deposit over a large area.
Initial drilling program completed
In August, Boss completed its initial drilling program at the project designed to upgrade the existing resource. Fourteen RC drill holes and two diamond drill holes were drilled in the China Bush Plantation area, also known as China Flats, near the Great Bend of the Mersey River. The drill core samples from the exploration program are being processed and results will be released as soon as they become available.
As part of the exploration program, Boss plans to extract and test a bulk sample of approximately 20 to 50 tonnes in the nature of a scoping study to determine recovery rates of oil.
Exploration success - Feasibility study
Dependent on the success of its exploration the company will investigate the merits of a feasibility study to develop the Project towards mining of oil shale and extraction of oil.
The economic development of oil product from the oil shale requires two stages of mining and extraction. Firstly, the oil shale must be mined by conventional mining methods whether by open-cut or underground mining. Secondly, the oil needs to be extracted from the oil shale. Any shale oil extracted is likely to be able to be hydrotreated to yield a petroleum equivalent.
