Ernst Venter, general manager, Exxaro Coal
Send this article to a friend
Print this page

» Exxaro may abandon Kipushi
» Exxaro agrees major coal offtake deal
» Capex lifted on Exxaro coal project
» Exxaro launches raft of coal studies

» JSE:EXXARO RESOURCES LIMITED:
5350c 0%

New coal mine for Exxaro in 2009
Allan Seccombe
Posted: Fri, 06 Jul 2007

[miningmx.com] -- EXXARO Resources will bring a new coal project on stream during the second half of 2009 to add four million tonnes per annum to it production profile, of which three million tonnes will be exported, Ernst Venter, executive general manager of coal said on Friday.

A bankable feasibility study is underway at the old Glisa mine near Belfast in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province, the heart of the country’s coal sector.

The study will be completed around January next year in time to go before the board in April for approval. The cost of the project would be roughly R300m, which could be internally funded, Venter told Miningmx.
We are on track
A mine at Glisa is expected to be commissioned in mid-2009, hitting full production three months later. Three million tonnes will be exported and the balance will go to state power utility Eskom, he said.

Glisa historically produced around two million tonnes of coal per annum.

This is one of the projects Exxaro has in South Africa and Australia to reach its 2014 target of entering the world’s top-ten league of coal producers, with production of 75 million tonnes a year.

“We are on track to reach our 75 million tonne target,’ Venter said.

Exxaro is also investigating potential coal projects in China, Exxaro’s CEO designate Sipho Nkosi told Miningmx. “We are in discussions with a lot of people. Watch this space.”

Exxaro, which combines the coal assets of the unbundled Kumba Resources and Eyesizwe coal, has production capacity of 45 million tonnes/year. It has eight coal mines. The largest mine is the Grootegeluk mine, where production is scheduled to grow by 17 mtpa to 35 mtpa to supply the yet-to-be-built R80bn, 4,500 MW Medupi power station from about 2015.

Click Here to subscribe to our daily newsletter
Underground mining was stopped at Glisa, an asset of the former Eyesizwe Coal, 18 months ago “because conditions were very difficult,” Venter said. New exploration has determined there is opencast and underground potential to start a mine with an 18-year life of mine, he said.

“It’s an opportunity that we had underestimated,” Venter said during a visit to the recently started R270m Inyanda coal mine, which is ramping up to 1.5 million tonnes per annum of steady state production.

Inyanda is currently producing 100,000 tonnes of coal a month, which is being treated at Exxaro’s New Clydesdale operation some 45 km away.

Exxaro is conducting a feasibility study for a market coke project to be taken before the board in April. The project will meet demand for some one million tonnes of market coke currently imported for the ferro businesses in South Africa. Phase one will supply 380,000 tonnes of market coke from around the end of 2009 from the Grootegeluk mine. A second phase will double that figure, Venter said.

Exxaro is working closely with the steel and ferro businesses in the supply of reductants. It will supply 160,000 tonnes of char to the ferro-alloy, ferro-chrome and ferro-manganese operations from the end of this year.

A study is also underway at the Waterberg coal deposits, which host the Grootegeluk coal mine, to see if the coal lends itself to coal-to-liquid fuel technology, Nkosi said.

“If it makes us money we will do it,” he said, declining to give any further information.