JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) − Emerging miner Coal of Africa Limited (CoAL) would resume activities at its Vele colliery site next week, after the project was on hold for almost a year, CEO John Wallington said on Wednesday.

But it would probably take up to a month to get all the contractors back to the site in Limpopo. “It is like starting the project from scratch and it will take us a couple of weeks to get everyone on site.”

The construction phase of Vele would be completed within six to nine months from the restart date. The project would ramp up production to an initial one-million tons a year.

CoAL announced on Wednesday that it was granted environmental authorisation to mine at Vele, which is located near Mapungubwe − an United Nations World Heritage site and national park, which archaeologists believe was once the capital of mighty African kings.

The company was forced to halt activities in August, when it was discovered that development operations did not meet the standards of the National Environmental Management Act.

In April, CoAL paid about $1.3-million to the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) for earlier environmental contraventions.

Wallington said that the company had received a 28-page document stipulating conditions to the environmental authorisation. “We were expecting conditions owing to the uniqueness of the area and have agreed to them.”

But CoAL also expected environmental groups to appeal the process and environmental authorisation, he said.

A nongovernmental organisation (NGO) coalition announced late on Wednesday that it would take legal measures to challenge the DEA’s environmental authorisation, including lodging an appeal and judicial review proceedings.

“The coalition considers the decision by the Department to grant the authorisation, or even to accept the rectification application, wholly inappropriate in light of CoAL's considerable resources and status as a public-listed company who ought to be fully aware of its obligations under law. It is not clear why the Department is allowing CoAL to legitimise their illegal activities,” it said in a statement.

The NGO coalition said that the DEA authorisation only applied to some of the activities undertaken at the mining site and that CoAL had a second, outstanding rectification application, which is open for public comment until July 29. The coalition would object to the rectification application.

The coalition is already appealing the mining right granted by the Department of Mineral Resources, as well as the associated approval of the environmental management programme. The coalition further launched interdict proceedings to stop CoAL from carrying on any mining or related operations on the Vele site and would shortly be lodging an appeal against the granting of the integrated water use licence.

Shares in the ASX-, Aim- and JSE-listed company surged on Wednesday closing 15% higher in Sydney and climbing 21% in London. CoAL traded almost 18% higher at R9.51 apiece on the JSE at the time of writing.

Vele could produce some five-million tons a year of soft coking coal, over a 25-year life-of-mine.

- with additional reporting by Esmarie Swanepoel

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