Modern Mining January 2024

TOP PROJECTS: COAL

Gugulethu Colliery – Canyon Coal’s newest multi-million-rand investment

South African coal miner, Canyon Coal, a subsidiary of private investment company, Menar, will begin first production from its Gu gulethu Colliery in Mpumalanga, in early 2024. This will be a major milestone for the Greenfields project, which set the miner back a whopping R600 million in capital invested, Gugulethu Colliery GM Jarmi Steyn tells Modern Mining .

F ormerly known as De Wittekrans, Gugulethu, located southeast of Hendrina, is a project acquired out of business rescue. Canyon Coal’s newest venture aligns “perfectly with the company’s overall expansion drive of develop ing completely new projects – this is in addition to acquiring operational mines”. According to Steyn, Canyon Coal seeks to invest in projects that yield high-quality products to cater for export and local markets. “The development of the mine is happening at an opportune time as export opportunities for coal miners are opening in emerging Asian markets. The high-quality washed coal from Gugulethu will be per fect for global markets,” she says. “The project,” she adds “was developed from scratch, and we have been able to reach significant milestones in under 12 months. Moreover, in the cur rent economic climate, where people are most in need of job opportunities, a project like Gugulethu will contribute to alleviating unemployment.” The mine’s presence in the community will cre ate jobs, support local enterprise development, and bring skills training opportunities, says Steyn. “We believe this investment illustrates that, despite the numerous challenges South Africa’s economy faces,

Gugulethu Colliery’s GM, Jarmi Steyn has led the mine’s development from inception. it is still possible to invest in new ventures. The mine was among the investment projects pledged at the 2023 SA Investment Conference lead by President Ramaphosa.” The first phase of the mine will create more than 200 jobs, with priority given to residents of the host community. When fully operational, the mine will cre ate a total of 430 jobs. Project development Gugulethu’s operations will unfold in two phases over its 20-year life of mine, with the first phase com prising three open cast pits and processing plant and the second phase consisting of underground opera tions scheduled to take place in seven years’ time. A total of R600 million has been injected into Gugulethu Colliery. Phase 1 of the mine holds a reserve of 14.3 million tons of run-of-mine (ROM) coal. It also consists of three pits, one of which has been speci cally designed to gain access to the underground reserve part of Phase 2. The second phase is expected to commence in 2030 after the conclusion of the open cast reserve. By October, the coal miner was well on track to meet its scheduled activities, having advanced work on the box cut, which it had started mining in May, 2023. “The topsoil and soft soil have already been removed, and blasting has commenced. The construction of the processing plant, which was refurbished and transported from Canyon Coal’s decommissioned Hakhano mine in Middelburg, is also in its advanced stages and will be functional in time for us to produce Gugulethu’s first washed coal in the first quarter of 2024. Yellow equipment and first delivery of mining machinery including Volvo ADTs, 140 CAT graders, Dozers, and Volvo Excavators arrived within the first six months of the year, while a

An aerial view of the box cut pit at Canyon Coal’s Gugulethu Colliery in Mpumalanga.

Top projects

26  MODERN MINING  January 2024