Modern Mining May 2018

COAL

Keaton acquisition, a BEE transaction – which he describes as “a significant step in Wescoal’s journey” – has been concluded. This not only guarantees a black shareholding of more than 50 % over a five-year period but has also resulted in the injection of around R176 mil- lion in new equity into the business. “Our BEE credentials now meet the very exacting require- ments of Eskom, which is our single biggest customer,” he says. Wescoal prides itself on running tight, efficient operations and Modern Mining was able to judge this for itself on a recent media tour of the Elandspruit mine and the Wescoal Processing Plant. Elandspruit is located 8 km west of Middelburg while the plant is approx- imately 20 km south of the town. The tour group was accompanied by senior executives of Wescoal, including Izak van der Walt (CFO), Thivha Tshithavhane (CEO Mining), Bongani Hlope (Head HR) and Elandspruit GM Baat Leonard. When Modern Mining was last on site at Elandspruit in early 2016, the mine was still ramping up and the mining contractor was Diesel Power. Today Elandspruit has reached – and indeed is exceeding – its steady-state production level with multiple faces active to allow for synchronised mining activities. There is also a new mining contractor – eMalahleni- based IPP Mining & Materials Handling – in place, which is consistently hitting its monthly targets. The opencast production is supple- mented by a small underground section which utilises a single continuous miner. Current monthly production is running at between 250 000 and 260 000 tonnes of ROM, with the opencast operation being responsible for about 220 000 tonnes monthly. The mine exploits all five seams of the Witbank coalfield, which extend to a maximum depth of 70 m below surface, are near hori- zontal in formation and devoid of geological complexities. The seams are mined selectively with IPP deploying a fleet consisting primarily of 40-ton capacity Bell ADTs, 100-ton capacity Komatsu rigid trucks and Hitachi excavators. Tshithavhane noted that synergies with its neighbours have allowed the mine to open additional opencast mining faces and have also expedited the opening of the underground section, which is accessed via an adit on a neighbouring property. Elandspruit’s production is trucked to the Wescoal Processing Plant for washing. This facility was originally built around eight years ago by Muhanga Mines and was purchased by Wescoal in 2014 at a very competitive price for

a 1,5 to 2 Mt/a ROM operation. “Moabsvelden is fully permitted and there is capacity for the coal it produces to be washed using the pro- cessing facilities at Vanggatfontein,” states Sulaiman. “So essentially we’re talking about a low-capex development – probably under R200 million – which could be put into pro- duction within a very short time frame. “We’re currently very advanced with our own studies on the project in preparation for an investment decision. Keaton was look- ing at an entirely opencast mine but we are examining whether underground mining or a combination of underground and opencast might be a better option.” With Vanggatfontein now in the mix, Wescoal is currently producing at an annualised rate of over 7 Mt/a ROM. Once Moabsvelden comes on stream, this figure could easily exceed the 8 Mt/a target. Looking at achievements over the recent past, Sulaiman says that in addition to the operationalisation of Elandspruit and the

Mining contractor IPP has deployed a fleet at Eland- spruit consisting primarily of 40-ton capacity Bell ADTs, 100-ton capacity Komatsu rigid trucks and Hitachi excavators.

A view of Elandspruit taken two years ago, just a few months after it started operations.

26  MODERN MINING  May 2018