ACRI has two Coal Operating Contracts (COC) granted by the Department of Energy covering areas in:

• Isabela     
• Masbate

The COCs were signed and awarded in January 2007.

The COC area is in two parcels situated east of Cauayan, Isabela; covering portions of the municipalities of Cauayan, Benito Soliven, and Naguilan.

Six coal seams, I to VI, were identified in the previous exploration. The seams vary in thickness from 0.2 m to 1.8 m, flat-lying to very gently northwesterly dipping. The coal deposits are found in the Pliocene-Pleistocene Ilagan Formation.

Average rank of the coal from Cauayan, Isabela is lignite A.

The in-situ total coal reserves in the PNOC-EC area is about 78 million MT.

The Masbate COC area is situated at the southeastern end of the island, in the municipalities of Cataingan and Palanas. It consists of two DOE Coal Blocks, 28-I-318 and 319 with a total area of 2,000 hectares, more or less.

COC over these coal blocks was awarded to Hercules Coal Mining and Development Corp. in the 1980s but progress in exploration and development of the area was cut short by depressed coal price and demand, as well as prevailing peace and order problem then. It was reported that small-scale miners are presently producing coal in the area.

Reported coal occurrence in the COC area includes eight seams with thickness ranging from 0.3 m to 1.5 m in a 150 m thick coal-bearing section of the Late Miocene-Early Pliocene Buyag Formation.

Due to proximity of the area to the Philippine Fault, small scale folding and faulting caused steep dips and disruption of the coal seams.

Average rank of the coal in Cataingan, Masbate is high volatile bituminous C.

Hercules’ exploration and development efforts blocked a measured in-situ coal reserves of 292,000 MT. DOE’s more recent estimate, considering the other coal occurrences in the less explored portions of the coal blocks, is 2.5 million MT inferred reserves.

The Aragorn coal exploration project in Cataingan, Masbate will validate Hercules’ in-situ reserves estimate and locate other deposits to augment the proven reserves.