White Energy’s coal expansion opens a bigger development pipeline

Coal portfolio expands across Queensland and Alabama

White Energy Company Limited (ASX:WEC) has used the September quarter to make a decisive turn towards coal development, completing acquisitions in Queensland and Alabama while raising $15 million from investors. The expansion gives the company a larger project base, but most of the assets remain at the study, approval or restart-planning stage rather than in production.

“The project is located near Miles in Queensland’s Surat Basin, approximately 330 km west of Brisbane, and extends from the Wandoan area to north of Chinchilla.”

“Location of White Energy projects. Prospective for Tier 1 mineral systems.”

Caption and image © White Energy Company Limited. From “Quarterly Activities Report and Appendix 5B”, 30 Oct 2026.

White Energy completed its coal acquisitions of Tin Hut Creek in Queensland and the Lolley No. 1 underground metallurgical coal project in Alabama on 11 September. Tin Hut Creek cost $4.5 million in cash, subject to completion adjustments, while the Alabama project was acquired for 83.33 million White Energy shares valued at $0.06 each, plus cash associated with US withholding tax obligations. The consideration shares are subject to a 12-month voluntary escrow.

The South Galilee Coal Project was added shortly after the quarter closed. White Energy completed the acquisition from the AMCI Group on 12 October for $0.5 million in cash, securing two exploration permits covering about 436 square kilometres and a mining lease application. The company plans drilling, washability studies and technical and economic work, but development remains conditional on approvals, financing and infrastructure arrangements. The transaction had been covered in South Galilee acquisition reporting, which noted that no production timetable or resource figures had been disclosed.

Capital raising lifts cash but development costs remain ahead

The $15 million placement issued 250 million shares at $0.06 each to institutional and professional investors. White Energy said the proceeds would support the acquisitions, project development, working capital and corporate purposes. Broker Aitken Mount Capital Partners or its nominees also received 50 million unlisted options, split across exercise prices ranging from $0.10 to $1.00.

Quarter-end cash stood at $8.252 million, up from $414,000 at the end of the previous quarter. Operating activities consumed $1.726 million and exploration and evaluation payments used a further $508,000, while net financing inflows reached $14.444 million after equity issue costs, borrowings and loan repayments. On the company’s reported outgoings, that cash balance equates to an estimated 3.7 quarters of funding.

That headline cash improvement needs to be read alongside the scale of the new portfolio. Lolley No. 1 is on care and maintenance, and White Energy plans to update its mine plan, assess remaining capital requirements and develop a funding strategy before any staged recommissioning. The company is also assessing coal-fines recovery and a possible open-cut operation at the Alabama site. The timing of initial production remains subject to financing, approvals and restart work.

Specimen Hill drilling sharpens copper-gold-silver targets

Coal was not the only source of exploration interest. At the 51%-owned Specimen Hill project near Biloela, Queensland, preliminary geochemical work identified multiple copper-gold-silver hydrothermal vectors from the eight-hole reconnaissance diamond drilling program completed in March.

“Regional metallogenic setting Mount Rainbow–Specimen Hill copper project in Queensland.”

“Drillhole locations, final depths and selected peak Cu–Au–Ag geochemical results from the 2025–26 program.”

Caption and image © White Energy Company Limited. From “Quarterly Activities Report and Appendix 5B”, 30 Oct 2026.

A surface gossan sample collected about 280 metres from drillhole C26MR08 returned 11.7% copper, 5.0 grams per tonne gold and 329 grams per tonne silver. White Energy described the result as an oxidised and supergene-enriched expression of primary copper sulphide mineralisation, while cautioning that additional sampling and interpretation are required. A further 302 samples from C26MR08 have been submitted for assay, with results pending.

Approvals, resource definition and licence negotiations set the next test

“Local geological setting of the Mount Rainbow–Specimen Hill project, focused on the Signature Gold–Southern Copper prospect area.”

White Energy plans gravity, multispectral, rock-chip, soil and ionic sampling programs at Specimen Hill to refine targets before further work. At Tin Hut Creek, the company has yet to independently verify historical exploration results or resource estimates and intends to rebuild the geological model before drilling and JORC resource evaluation. The company also plans to review environmental work and mining lease applications across its expanded Queensland coal portfolio.

Meanwhile, the Binderless Coal Briquetting business continues trials in South Africa, where a small plant has been producing briquettes from coal fines and a commercial-scale demonstration plant is being designed with Proterra. A replacement licence covering Africa, North America and Australasia is still under negotiation after two existing sub-licences expired in January 2026.