The South African arm of inter-national mine equipment manufac-turing company, Joy Mining Machinery South Africa, has been awarded the contract to supply the Anglo Inyosi Zondagsfontein coal project with a fleet of underground mining equipment, ranging from continuous miners, shuttle cars, and battery haulers, to roof supports and feeder breakers.

The Zondagsfontein project consists of two subprojects, namely Zondags- fontein Colliery, which Anglo Coal South Africa is developing on behalf of Anglo Inyosi Coal (AIC), and the Phola coal processing plant, which Anglo Coal South Africa is developing on behalf of AIC and BHP Billiton Energy Coal South Africa.

The Zondagsfontein project is situated outside Ogies, in Mpumalanga, and is made up of two seams. The project has an inferred resource of about 120,8-million tons. Two additional seams have been identified by Anglo Coal South Africa, which carry an inferred resource of about 370-million tons of mineable coal on site.

In terms of the allocation of the processed coal into the domestic and export markets, reports indicate that the allocation is about 50:50 over the life of the project with more export production in the early years of the project, owing to the coal qualities within the reserve. As the project progresses, the product split will be determined by the geology of the coal resources.

The Joy fleet of equipment, scheduled for delivery from July 2008 to mid-2009, comprises eight 12HM31 B Mark 2 3,3-kV continuous miners, with mega wet head and dual drive conveyor, twelve 10SC32 56C 20-t shuttle cars, twelve BH20A battery haulers with Lionetics traction drives, and eight BF14A-54-43Cs with roof support and integrated tail end for ease of belt extension.

Joy Mining Machinery is in the process of negotiating a cost-per-ton agreement with Anglo Coal for the Zondagsfontein coal mine.