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F E B R U A R Y / M A R C H 2 0 1 7 www.resourceworld.com 29 Altitude Resources developing Canadian coking coal projects While various governments around the world, including Canada, are taking steps to eliminate thermal coal-powered power plants, coking coal is a different story. Coking coal, which is also called metallur - gical or steelmaking coal, is heated in an oven to force out impurities, resulting in coke, which is nearly pure carbon. Because coking coal is a higher grade of coal than thermal coal, coking coal is used to make steel from iron ore. Coking coal-derived steel remains an essential component of the modern world and includes steel beams for buildings, rails for trains and subways and other infrastruc - ture – even wind turbines. As of early January 2017, coking coal prices were holding above US $300/tonne, a dramatic rise from the mulita-year lows of about US $70/tonne level a year ago. However, as the New Year developed, coking coal prices dropped and as of late January were about US $173/tonne. Calgary, Alberta-based Altitude Resources Inc. [ALI-TSXV] has assem - bled a portfolio of coking coal projects located in west-central and southwestern Alberta. The company's flagship project is the Palisades Project located 40 km north of Hinton, west-central Alberta where 26 rotary and eight core holes were drilled (3,141 metres) in the 2016 exploration program. Trenching was also completed during the $1.55 million program that was carried by Dahrouge Geological Consulting of Edmonton, Alberta. The Palisades proj - ect is 12 km from the CN Rail line. The Palisades Project is a joint ven- ture whereby Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. (JOGMEC) can earn a 51% interest based on three farm-in milestones that include field work, drilling and com- pletion of a mining study. For Palisades, Altitude Resources has a tonnage target of 49 million tonnes. Currently, measured and indicated resources stand at 15.9 million tonnes with 7.6 million tonnes inferred. These figures do not include any resources on the adjacent Palisades Extension property. JOGMEC has confirmed its participa - tion in third farm-in period pursuant for Palisades. Gene Wusaty, President and CEO of Altitude, said, "We are pleased to have JOGMEC commit to the 2017 pro- gram at Palisades. The coking coal markets continue to be very robust, and we look forward to providing an updated Palisades project NI 43-101-compliant resource report within the next several weeks. This new data will form the baseline for our upcoming 2017 program." Altitude has earlier stages coking coal projects, including the Elan Project in southwestern Alberta, a JV with Elan Coal Ltd. whereby Atrum Coal Ltd. can acquire up to a 70% interest by passing various milestones such as completion of exploratory work and a scoping study. Altitude and Elan are carried free until completion of a bankable feasibility study when Altitude will hold a 12.5% interest and Elan 17.5%. The project hosts indi - cated resources of 62.14 million tonnes and 84.72 million tonnes inferred. Altitude also holds the Altitude North Project near Grande Cache, Alberta where seven coking coal seams have been iden - tified with estimated true thicknesses of between 0.3 and 6 metres and a strike length of about 20 km. The company also has an early-stage coking coal greenfield project – Moberly Creek – located north - west of its other projects All of the Altitude Resources projects are reasonable distances to CN Rail lines which connect to Canadian west coast tidewater ports. n www.resourceworld.com MINING