JSE-listed black-controlled coal-mining company Exxaro Resources published a pipeline of its projects, which included 11 coal projects, at the presentation of its 2007 results, in February.

The Mafube project, in Mpumalanga, entails the development of a four-million- to five-million-ton-a-year openpit coal mine near Middelburg, which will produce for the local power-generating industry and the export market.

Mafube has proven and probable reserves of 89-million tons and mineable on-site coal resources of 139-million tons.

Coal-miner Anglo Coal and Exxaro have been granted the mining rights to establish an opencast mine on the

Mafube coal reserves, initiating the second phase of a deal signed by the companies.

The capital cost of the Mafube expansion project is expected to be about R1,9-billion upon completion. The main contracts have not been stated.

The project is a 50:50 joint venture between Anglo Coal and Exxaro.

Construction on the mine started in July 2006, and the first coal was delivered to the washing plant in January 2008 while ramp-up to full design capacity is expected by August.

Exxaro’s programme manager for the Waterberg projects, Jan Oberholzer, said in an interview with Mining Weekly, “Construction on Exxaro’s Grootegeluk Medupi expansion project has not yet started and if the project is approved, the first of the construction contracts are to be awarded by the end of 2008. Physical on-site construction is planned to start by mid-2009.”

This project will entail the expansion of Grootegeluk to produce an extra 7,3-million tons of thermal coal a year for the new 4 500-MW Medupi power station to be built in Lephalale, in Limpopo province, by power utility Eskom.

This coal-mine expansion, meanwhile, follows the Grootegeluk 6 phase one project, which was commissioned in July 2006, at a cost R323-million.

The Inyanda coal project, in Mpumalanga, involves the development of an openpit coal mine at Kalbasfontein, north-east of Witbank.

Exxaro’s area GM for coal, Johan Wepener, provides an update on the Inyanda project: “The Inyanda project is now complete and the plant is in the final commissioning stages. The first export trains were dispatched during the first week of June. The plant will reach full design capacity in July 2008, producing 1,5-million tons of A-grade export coal a year for export through the Richards Bay Coal Terminal.”

Development of this project cost an estimated R269-million.

Wepener provided further updates on the mines at the North Block Complex (NBC): “At NBC, Exxaro is hoping to execute the Eerstelingsfontein mining rights before the end of June this year. When this is achieved, the company will start to mine the Eerstelingsfontein reserve, which is about a two-million-ton reserve. This reserve will be mined at a rate of about one-million tons a year, which will be an extension of the current NBC reserves.

“The prefeasibility study on the Belfast Block project is another extension of the NBC operation. The feasibility study is being done on an estimated two-million-ton- a-year total product. Production from this reserve will serve both the export and domestic markets. Exxaro plans to finalise the feasibility study in 2009,” he concludes.