Diversified miner Exxaro Resources is looking to dispose of its loss-making Glen Douglas dolomite mine.

The company’s outgoing financial director, Dirk van Staden, who starts his retirement this week, tells Mining Weekly that the mine is “basically a historical asset which was carried over to the company” in 2001, when Iscor was split into what is now AcerlorMittal and Kumba Resources – Kumba Resources was later split into Exxaro Resources and Kumba Iron Ore.

Initially, the dolomite mined at the Glen Douglas mine was intended for Iscor’s steel division.

Van Staden adds that Exxaro intends to dispose of the mine because dolomite market conditions are not favourable at present and the mine has been in a loss-making position for some time.

“If you look at the size of the Glen Douglas dolomite operation, compared with our other operations, you will notice that we operate large opencast and underground mines with large-scale beneficiation plants, but the dolomite mine doesn’t really fit in that type of asset base, and for that reason we are looking for other investment opportunities for it,” he says.

The Glen Douglas mine is located in Henley-on-Klip, near Vereeniging, in Gauteng, about 65 km south of Johannesburg. It is an openpit mine which supplies metallurgical dolomite to ArcelorMittal South Africa for the production of steel and aggregate.

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