It said more than 40 holes would be drilled for about 7,000m at Elan South, with the focus on expanding Elan's JORC resources and refining the coal quality definition through extensive testing of samples extracted from large-diameter cores.

The company has appointed a drilling contractor which will start in June, and a road construction contractor.

It also aims to start drilling at the Panorama North project in August.  

Atrum managing director Max Wang said the company had many plans for Elan and Panorama over the next few months.

"We plan to extract samples from large diameter cores that will allow us to further test the coking characteristics of the Elan hard coking coal. Various North Asian steel mills which we have contacted in recent months are awaiting these result," he said.

Atrum has also moved its North American office from Vancouver to Alberta to be closer to the Elan project site.

Wang said the local office would make it easier to engage with local communities and monitor and guide field activities at the project.