Nucoal Mining, the black economically empowered coal-miner in South Africa, has increased the production capacity at its Woestalleen colliery, in Middelburg, Mpumalanga, from 90 000 run-of-mine (ROM) tons a month to 200 000 t/m, following the successful completion of a R60-million plant expansion project that kicked off in February last year.
Speaking at the opening of the new plant, COO Paul Erskine said that the company had taken the colliery from a wash plant capacity of “400 000 t life-of- mine, when it bought Woestalleen as a junior mining house with 33 800 000 t of coal reserves and a 14-year life-of-mine through various strategic joint ventures (JVs)”.
Nucoal Mining acquired Woestalleen in November 2006, when the Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) index had just broken into the $40/t to $50/t trading range. Today, it is hovering around $130/t.
The Woestalleen colliery has been producing coal since 1986, and exports some 660 000 t/y through Swiss marketing house Glencore International. The colliery has been exporting coal through the RCBT for more than two years.
“The next project at Woestalleen will be the implementation of a phase which should take the ROM production up another 100 000 t, to 300 000 t/m, and that project is weeks away from signing and should be complete in 11 months,” said Erskine.
Other projects that Nucoal Mining is involved in include the building of a siding in Kendall, in Mpumalanga province, in a JV with another multinational trading company, and a JV coking coal project in Zimbabwe, which produces about 120 000 t/m.
“Coking coal has risen from a low of $60/t in 18 months, to about $240/t for semisoft today, an increase of more than 249%,” he added.
Source: Mining Weekly
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