Modern Mining May 2023

JUNIOR MINING

“Eloff Colliery, also in Delmas, will provide strate gic near-term flexibility and upside as it will enable the potential for low-cost expansion of life of mine to the neighbouring Kangala Colliery, as well as the potential for additional extensions within the broader project area. We are finalising our Eloff standalone contract with Eskom,” Rughubir explains, adding that the Eloff Project is a greenfields project being devel oped for the production of coal destined for Eskom power stations. The development of the Kangala-Eloff project – a 20-year plus operation – is going through the vari ous project phases and is set to be an integral part of Ndalamo Resources future business. Further to this, on its recently purchased Spring boklaagte – a greenfields operation also situated in the Delmas area, the company is busy with a prefea sibility study. It intends commencing production from Springboklaagte in 2024. The underground operation is earmarked for export focused produc tion with a small middlings product destined for the domestic market. “The recent export demand has brought huge success to Ndalamo as we are known for our con sistent and reliable supply of export products,” says Rughubir. As such, the company is focusing on building up its logistics and marketing segments to ensure that it is able to provide a niche all-encompassing service to end users. “In addition to the expansion of our current operations, we are also participating in a coal dis posal process which is a huge strategic alignment for our NBC operation. This acquisition will provide Ndalamo with RBCT allocation, siding capacity of rail to both Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) and Terminal da Carvao da Matola (TCM), and foster life of mine expansion overall for Ndalamo’s Resources Belfast portfolio,” says Dajee. Having thrived from the divestment of coal by major producers in industry, Ndalamo’s operating model consists of a competent management team

predominately focus on the production of export coal. The North Block Complex (NBC), is located near the town of Belfast and includes the newly devel oped Paardeplaats opencast section. It is situated close to Eskom’s Arnot Power Station, which it also supplies with coal. “At NBC we developed the Paardeplaats resources and have successfully con cluded a 10-year contract with Eskom for the coal. We are also working on expanding the life of mine of this operation. “Both NBC and NCC are operating at a steady state of production and have proven consistent in meeting the required off-take agreement tonnages from both ESKOM and export customers,” says Rughubir. The Ubuntu Colliery in Delmas, Mpumalanga Province, an opencast operation that is concentrated on an Eskom grade crushed and screened product, is situated near Eskom’s Kusile Power plant, which it supplies with coal. Aside from existing operations, Ndalamo is developing its Eloff coal mine – an operation that is a standalone project and an extension to the current Kangala operation. Eloff coal mine is scheduled to come onstream in the third quarter of 2023.

Ndalamo Resources aggressively targets growth.

22  MODERN MINING  May 2023