<p>This research involved the correlation of results of the electrical resistivity method of geophysical prospecting involving the vertical electrical sounding (VES) techniques and exploratory core drilling method. The purpose was to determine the effectiveness of adopting VES in coal exploration and reserve estimation. The crossplots between results of VES techniques and exploratory core drilling method gave a good linear relationship having a trend line coefficient of correlation (<i>r</i>) of 0.78 and coefficient of determination (<i>R</i>²) of 0.62 for depth to coal layer. Also, a coefficient of correlation (<i>r</i>) of 0.93 and coefficient of determination (<i>R</i>²) of 0.87 for coal seam thickness. The histograms showing the results of depth to coal seam and coal seam thicknesses from both methods are closely overlapped. This indicated that the vertical electrical sounding techniques could be used as a complimentary method to exploratory core drilling in coal exploration. Synthesis of the borehole cross-section and the geoelectrical section along lines A–B, C–D, and E–F in the study area shows perfect visual similarities in lithologies and layer thicknesses. The mineralization potential map of the study area generated from results of both methods also indicated similarities, these further inform the reliability of VES as a complimentary to exploratory core drilling in coal exploration and reserve estimation. From the VES results, the coal seam reserve was estimated to contained 25,720,810.75 mt having an average overburden thickness of 43.35&#xa0;m and estimated overburden volume of 366,527,482.61 m³. While the estimated reserved from core-drilled borehole method is 24,457,542.27 mt having an average overburden thickness of 40.86&#xa0;m and an estimated overburden volume of 384,047,619.89 m³. The variation of the results in both methods may be due to the overestimation of coal seam thickness in VES interpretation caused by the merging of the coal seam with the carbonaceous shale layer at some points. The stripping ratio (which is the amount of non-economic materials that must be removed to uncover one unit of coal seam) estimated from both methods are respectively 14.25 and 15.70 for VES techniques and exploratory core-drilling method. The percentage error of the stripping ratio results (assuming the stripping ratio of the core-drilled borehole as the real, and stripping ratio of VES as estimated) from both methods is calculated to be—9.24%. It is good, since it is less than the permissible scientific error range of ± 10%. The study showed that the vertical electrical sounding technique could be used as a complementary method to the conventional exploratory core drilling method in coal exploration and reserve estimation.</p>