OT WHD - big news just out - coal in ChinaNEWS RELEASE PAGE
Headline: West Hawk Invited to Participate in Developing Lu'An's Xinjiang Coal Mine and Coal-to-Liquid Projects
Symbol: WHD
DENVER, COLORADO--(Marketwire - June 5, 2008) - West Hawk Development Corp. (TSX VENTURE:WHD)(FRANKFURT:H5N) ("West Hawk" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that West Hawk has accepted an invitation by Lu'An Mining Group ("Lu'An") to participate in developing its Xinjiang Coal Mine and Coal-to-Liquid projects. Lu'An has secured a coal reserve area consisting of 236 km2 with geological reserves of more than 7 billion metric tons in Zhundong Coalfield in Qitai County, Xinjiang Autonomous Region, China. The proposed Xinjiang coal Mine and Coal-to-Liquid industrial complex will include an 8 to 10 million metric ton coalmine and a 2 million metric ton CTL plant. West Hawk is currently negotiating with Lu'an to take an equity position on the Xinjiang Coal Project.
It has been agreed by the board directors of both West Hawk and Lu'An Group that using Sasol-Lurgi's proven coal gasification and CTL technology can significantly speed up the development process of the proposed Xinjiang CTL project. A delegation consisting of senior executives of both West Hawk and Lu'An will visit Lurgi GmbH in Germany and Sasol Ltd. in late June 2008 to discuss the terms and conditions of the technology transfer for Lu'An's Xinjiang CTL project. In addition a technology transfer to allow West Hawk's potential coal gasification/CTL projects in Canada with Sasol-Lurgi, and Lu'An will be included in the discussions.
Tulita Coal Gasification Project
A Letter of Intent was signed between West Hawk and Lu'An to jointly develop the Tulita coal gasification project in 2007. Based on the 43-101 report prepared by WEIR International, Inc. in 2007, the Tulita coal property in Northwest Territories, Canada has approximately 1.5 billion in-place metric tons of historical coal resources. The coal quality belongs to lignite/sub-bituminous coal ranks. The NWT coal samples have been tested by Sasol-Lurgi for gasification. The test results confirm the suitability of the NWT coal for gasification.
"China is now the world 2nd largest energy producer and consumer. Among the proven fossil energy reserves in China, coal accounts for 93%, while oil and natural gas together only account for 7%. However, oil and natural gas accounts for more than 24% of China's Primary Energy Consumption. To build a stable, economical, clean and safe energy supply system, to support its sustained economic and social development, China is targeting coal gasification to replace oil and natural gas resources with coal in developing its chemical, utility and transportation industries. Lu'An Group is one of three major players in China to develop large scale Coal-to-Liquid projects. West Hawk is very pleased to have this opportunity to participate in developing Lu'An's Xinjiang Coal Mine and CTL Projects," said Dr. Jinsheng Chen, President and CEO of Asia Operations for West Hawk.