JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South African-focused coal company Coal of Africa Limited (CoAL) has selected mining contractor MCC Contracts, a division of JSE-listed Eqstra Holdings, as its preferred partner to conduct opencast mining at its Vele coking coal project, in Limpopo.

CoAL anticipated that mining would start during the third quarter of 2009, producing between one-million tons and 1,5-million tons a year. This will be ramped up to five-million tons of coking coal a year.

CoAL said that MCC was selected on the basis of the its safety record, black economic empowerment compliance, its ability to deliver through its own sourced equipment, past performance, and cost effectiveness.

MCC group CEO Mike Barnes said that the company had a long and proud track record in opencast mining activity, in a diverse range of commodities.

The Vele resource, in which CoAL had a 74% stake, has increased to some 721-million tons, and it was expected that the resource base would further increase as drilling continued on the edges of the known resource.

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