The Suska (also known as Lossan) project is located 49 kilometres southwest of Chetwynd just north of the confluence of Beaudette and Brazion creeks. The Suska (Lossan) lies at the centre of the larger Goodrich block of properties that Gulf Canada Resources explored in the 1980s (Coal Assessment Report 531). The main target in this project area is the Lower Cretaceous Gething Formation, but coal also occurs in the Brenot and Monach formations. The property has potential to produce coking coal and pulverized coal injection (PCI) products.
The Lossan block (along with the larger enclosing Goodrich blocks) is located in the large northwesterly trending Goodrich synclinorium. The synclinorium is faulted and refolded on the property, forming complex geometries. The Goodrich synclinorium is a doubly-plunging structure; the Lossan property lies in the northern part of the structure, which has a southerly plunge of about 7 degrees. The Lossan coal measures occur in a subsidiary structure, the Lossan-Axis syncline fold pair.
Gulf Canada explored the property (under the project name Lossan) in the early 1980s, under option from Lossan Exploration Limited. The 1980 program consisted of geological mapping, digging of 197 hand trenches, and drilling of 17 rotary and 19 diamond- drill holes with geophysical logging, and coal quality analyses. The majority of these holes were directly on the Lossan property; five were located just east on the surrounding Goodrich property. Gulf's 1981 program concentrated on the Lossan block, with completion of 153 hand trenches (66 on the Lossan block), 19 rotary holes for 5073 metres, 30 diamond-drill holes for 9727 metres, geophysical logging of all holes, geological mapping, and gravity, electromagnetic and seismic surveys. An estimated resource of 100 million tonnes was estimated for the Lossan block (Coal Assessment Report 532). In 1982, Gulf conducted a bulk sampling program, driving two adits.
In 2005, Cline Mining Corporation optioned the property from Lossan Exploration Limited. Norwest Corporation of Calgary prepared a resource estimate for the company in accordance with National Instrument (NI) 43-101, prior to the 2005 work program, to initially identify in the deposit 20 million tonnes of low strip ratio (6:1) coal resource in place.
Cline Mining's 2005 exploration program included 4281 metres of drilling in 28 holes, and one adit for collection of unoxidized bulk samples. In Coal Assessment Report 891 (2006) Cline reported in-place coal resources of 108.8 million tonnes Measured, 77.3 million tonnes Indicated, and 53.5 million tonnes Inferred. Clean saleable surface mineable coal reserves of medium-volatile bituminous coal were reported as 8.96 million tonnes Proven and 4.97 million tonnes Probable.
In 2011, Xstrata Coal acquired the Lossan property from Cline Mining, and some of First Coal's assets on surrounding ground. Xstrata entered into a joint venture agreement with JX Nippon Oil and Energy Corporation in March 2012 to develop Xstrata's Peace River coalfield assets. The Lossan project, together with surrounding ground was renamed the Suska project. Xstrata Coal began work on pre-feasibility studies, and conducted an initial drilling program consisting of 70 exploration holes and 12 groundwater monitoring wells.
In 2013, Xstrata Coal merged with Glencore International to form Glencore Xstrata. Work programs conducted at Suska in 2012-13 by Glencore included drilling (exploration, geotechnical, hydrogeological), coal quality testing, and geotechnical and geochemical studies. Glencore reports 13 million tonnes of Indicated coal resources and 90 million tonnes of Inferred coal resources with a calorific value of 6100 kilocalories per kilogram (Glencore Resources and Reserves 2014 as at December 31, 2014).
