Linc shares soar after shale oil discovery

Linc shares closed up 22.5? at $1.90, rallying off 12-month lows.

The company disclosed that it had encountered a shale oil resource more than 124 metres thick at a depth of 854 metres in the Arckaringa basin of South Australia.

"At around 100 metres thick, an oil shale deposit of over 200 billion tonnes may be present," the company's chief executive, Peter Bond, said in a statement. "It is a remarkable prospect that we have only just begun to properly explore."

The shale oil can be processed underground, Linc said, with the material extracted for use as fuel, or as refinery feedstock.

Preliminary analysis undertaken for the company indicates potential oil yields of 25 litres to 45 litres a tonne although only a portion of the material would be able to be processed so that any recoverable material would be a modest part of the overall indicated resource.

Linc is involved with other controversial technologies such as underground coal gasification which aims to tap deep coal reserves to produce synthesis gas, and technology to produce liquid fuels from gas.

With ongoing controversy and doubt surrounding these aspects of the company's operations, Linc has bought into oil and gas exploration acreage in the US, in both Alaska and Texas, recently.

It has also gained access to tenement areas in the Cooper Basin, where a drilling campaign has been planned.