Great Post on GXSGoogle wrote:
Goldsource Mines was drilling for diamond in east central Sask, where
they intersected 25 m of coal in two holes, 1.6 km apart. The
discovery could have a huge impact to Canadian coal reserves and
industry because of its thickness, shallow depth from the surface, and
proximaty to all infrastructures.
The U.S. Geological Survey uses 400 m radius to estimate Measured Coal
Reserves, 1,200 m radius for Indicated, and 4,800 m radius for
Inferred. So if you do a quick calculation, each hole could bring (1.2
km * 1.2 km * 3.14 * 25 m) * 1.31 = 148 million tons measured and
indicated coal, where 1.31 is the specific gravity for the
bituminous / subbituminous coal. Or, (4.8 km * 4.8 km * 3.14 * 25 m) *
1.31 = 2.4 billion tons inferred! The area GXS has applied permit for
coal exploration is 1,430 square km, and if half of that area is
filled with half of the discovery coal thickness, you would have 11.7
billion tons.
The U.S. produces about 1.1 billion tons each year.