Tuesday, July 1, 2008

SouthGobi Energy stock stoked by thick, shallow coal seams in Mongolia

VANCOUVER — SouthGobi Energy Resources Ltd. shares (TSXV:SGQ) rose to a new high Monday after the company reported "multiple, thick, near-surface coking and thermal coal seams" at a site 16 kilometres east of its Ovoot Tolgoi coal mine in southern Mongolia.

The new find includes an intercept 51.5 metres thick, and the Vancouver-headquartered company has renamed the discovery, previously called the Alphabet fields, the Sumber coal project, a name which it said was suggested by a Mongolian lama and means "beginning of the universe."

Its stock, priced at barely $5 late last year, jumped by $3.51 or 19 per cent to $21.99 at midmorning on the TSX Venture Exchange.

"This discovery validates our expectations that there are multiple, near-surface thermal and coking coal deposits along strike from the existing mine at Ovoot Tolgoi," Gene Wusaty, chief operating officer of SouthGobi's coal division, stated Monday.

"The existing Ovoot Tolgoi mine site, airport and future coal transportation infrastructure will benefit the development at the Sumber discovery."

Exploration and drilling programs which started in 2005 have identified 11 coal seams at the Sumber project, and ongoing work is expected to result in a formal resource estimate in the fourth quarter of this year.

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