Proactive Investor's  Instablog

International Coal (ASX: ICX) director and chief financial officer David Round continues to increase his interest in the company, acquiring a further 50,000 shares on-market.

Recently, International Coal signed a landmark joint venture deal with Hancock Prospecting.

Round picked the shares up for a total consideration of A$10,000, providing an average entry price of $0.20 per share.

Earlier this year International Coal entered into a farm-in and joint venture agreement with Queensland Coal Investments, a wholly owned subsidiary of mining heavyweight Hancock Prospecting, which can earn up to a 51% interest in the Bundaberg coking coal project.

This is a significant milestone for the company, securing a farm-in and joint venture partner of the ilk of Hancock Prospecting to intensify exploration efforts at the Bundaberg project.

Hugh Dai, executive director, recently told Proactive Investors today the deal represented a recognition of the value ofInternational Coal's Bundaberg tenements by Queensland Coal Investments.

"For this deal you can see they can earn 51% for $5 million, and the tenements you are probably talking about $9 or $10 million in value.

"Secondly it adds credibility to our company and our project."

The joint venture partners are planning a drill program to begin later this year, with the principal target being Cretaceous hard coking coals.

Several exploration targets were determined, with an exploration target of 280 million tonnes to 370 million tonnes.

The Bundaberg Project is part of a solidly developing hard coking coal region, which hosts Northern Energy's (ASX: NEC) proposed 105 million tonne Colton Mine 45 kilometres to the south of the project.

Bundaberg also lies adjacent to Guildford Coal's (ASX: GUF) exploration permit EPC 1872 where current exploration is being undertaken. Other near neighbours to the project include Cliff Resources and Hancock Coal.

The Bundaberg Project already has a small JORC Resource of around 1.5 million tonnes, however the exploration target is 280-370 million tonnes of coking coal.

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