The Phulbari deposit is conducive to a long life, low cost open pit mining operation. The production costs will be in the lowest quartile of industry cost curves for both seaborne traded thermal coal and semi-soft coking coal. Substantial initial investment relating to equipment costs, site preparation, box cut development, and initial resettlement and other community programmes, will take place over a three year period leading up to the commencement of commercial coal production. The ramp up to saleable coal production of 15 million tonnes per annum will take a further five years. The coal will be used in domestic power generation and domestic industries such as clay brick and coal briquette production. Options regarding the semi-soft coking coal extraction and marketing remain under consideration.

The combination of high quality coal, a large coal resource, thick seams, highly competitive average stripping ratio, low operating costs, a project life of over 30 years and easy access to domestic markets make Phulbari a world class coal project.