EL 4500

EL 4500 is a brown coal exploration licence in the Latrobe Valley in Victoria which is held by Greenpower Energy Limited, a small Sydney-headquartered company with aims to develop coal and coal seam gas projects in Australia. El 4500 is one of six exploration licences the company holds in the Latrobe Valley which cover a total of 1,242.91sq km.

On its website Greenpower Energy states that "in the eastern part of EL4500, over 100Mt [million tonnes] of lignite have been identified in an area of 7.19 km2 with an average coal thickness of 11.8m and a strip ratio of 6:1 overburden to lignite." Elsewhere on the same page the company refers to "favourable" strip ratios -- the amount of overburden removed to the coal -- as being 2:1 or less. The company states that areas with higher strip ratios "have been chosen with a view to utilising newer energy recovery technologies which are able to operate with greater overburden thicknesses."

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