In October 2000 GTL Energy Pty Ltd began commercial investigations into the feasibility of establishing within Australia newly proven [coal] gas-to-liquids technology for combining power generation and synfuel production, by identifying potentially suitable low grade coal deposits that could be developed in this manner. During the following year, after GTL Energy had entered into an option agreement with Anglo Coal to re-evaluate and acquire the Sedan lignite deposit, the company was able to recover a set of historical CSR records and primary data which seemed to be adequate to support this intent. The data were transferred to a more accessible digital format, and were checked for transcription accuracy, integrity and completeness through a comprehensive audit. Based on these regenerated data, a newly calculated estimate of the major component (76%) of the Sedan coal resource, i.e. plies WS2 and WS4 of the Towitta seam, which was commissioned from an independent consultant who used the Vulcan computer 3D modelling system, was able to match the previous CSR estimate almost exactly. This confirmed that a complete set of historic data for the deposit had probably been recovered, and in consequence, CSR's total measured and indicated in situ lignite resource of 230 Mt could be regarded as proven correct, and applied to GTL Energy's project plans. A reliably mineable coal resource of 147 Mt was next identified, and from the previous analytical data, its average quality parameters were established. As a further check, cores from CSR's 1983 drilling campaign, stored at the PIRSA Core Library, were resampled for coal quality testing, and a new drillhole, MLE2, was likewise sampled. The new test results agreed with the known deposit stratigraphy and sedimentology and echoed the coal quality predictions made in CSR's data, so this external check of the data integrity was also deemed to be a success. As a consequence of undertaking this data validation process, GTL Energy is confident that it can proceed to carry out proprietary investigations into mining and processing the Sedan coal resource without the need to replicate earlier drilling and geological data evaluation, a saving which appears to have a direct monetary value to the company of approximately $1.5 M.