An area of 261 square km covering the Weedina coal deposit within the Arckaringa Basin has been retained by Cyprus Australia to protect the core of a very large buried Permian age sub-bituminous rank coal resource (~ 1200 Mt measured and indicated + ~ 6000 Mt inferred) with identified economic reserves, which has been the subject of two preliminary open-cut mine plans and a conceptual study on longwall underground mining, all of which have already been presented to the South Australian Mines Department and to the Electricity Trust of South Australia. The coal is of good quality when compared against other South Australian coals, and is suitable for use as conventional pulverised fuel boiler feed for electricity generation, even though its in situ moisture content is relatively high. The deposit occurs in eight flat-lying, persistent seams with an aggregate thickness of 25 m, which underlie 140-210 m of overburden containing major aquifers. The shape of the licence area is based on geological and mining factors (depth of burial, in situ strip ratios, maximum seam thicknesses and known coal qualities). The structural configuration of the Weedina coal deposit is presently regarded as consisting of two 'lobes' with distinctly different features: a) the shallower eastern and southern section where the thick M seam subcrops at 95-120 m depth, and b) the deep centre, where the total coal pile brings stripping ratios down below 6:1. The shallow belt represents the best chance at developing an underground mine, to tap an 8 m thick seam lying at 110 m depth. The deeper lobe has been the subject of the aforesaid open cut mining proposals. Both lobes have been included in Cyprus' present plans, due to the need to further evaluate the comparative merits of both mining methods for economically providing coal that may fuel a future coal-fired electrical power plant in the state.