PERTH (miningweekly.com) – South Africa-focused Continental Coal has joined the ranks of coal producers, when it started production at its Vlakvarkfontein mine, in Mpumalanga province, this week.

The company, listed on the ASX, said the first production blast occurred on Thursday.

The junior miner would send an initial parcel of coal to wash plants to be analysed, the result of which it would use to finalise an offtake agreement for its domestic coal product.

Continental said that discussions with a number of parties were already “well advanced”, and the contract was expected to be completed within the coming weeks.

The Vlakvarkfontein mine is expected to reach steady state production targets of 1,2-million tons of run-of-mine coal a year, by the third quarter of this year.

“The Vlakvarkfontein project was acquired less than 12 months ago, with our mining contractors Trollope mobilising on site only in February 2010,” said Continental Coal CEO Don Turvey.

“To have brought Vlakvarkfontein into production in the previously announced timeframe is a credit to our partners, the executives of the company, the contractors and the various consultants that have assisted with the development of this project.”

The junior miner expects to start production at its Vaalbank, Project X and Vlakplaats mines in 2011, at a rate of 300 000 t/m of export coal.

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