Mining activities at junior coal miner and supplier Wescoal Mining’s Elandspruit mine, in Mpumalanga, have started, coal mining, distributing and processing company Wescoal Holdings acting CEO Waheed Sulaiman said this month.

The mine will produce its first run-of-mine (RoM) during this month, he stated.

The mining division is on track to produce approximately 335 000 t/m RoM during the final quarter of the current financial year. This is equivalent to about four-million tons of RoM on an annualised basis, Sulaiman enthused.

“The Muhanga coal processing plant which we purchased for R40-million is just 18 km from the mine and has been processing [coal] since November 2014 using excess RoM in the market to supply the existing customer base. It will now process the Elandspruit RoM as planned,” he says.

Wescoal Mining, a subsidiary of Wescoal Holdings, has appointed Diesel Power Open Cast Mining as the mining contractor for the new Elandspruit mine.
Meanwhile, in April, Wescoal Mining was granted a water-use licence for the Elandspruit mine. At this point Sulaiman asserted that the Elandspruit project would start with project execution imminently.

Wescoal is developing the Elandspruit project from operationally generated cash flows, with- out having to seek funding support from share-holders.

“It is a benchmark in the group’s development, as Elandspruit will become our flagship mine, doubling our annual coal output from two-million tons to four-million tons by 2016, with a 12- to 15-year life span,” Sulaiman said.

In anticipation of acquiring the licence, Wescoal Mining ensured that everything was in place to start operations as safely and quickly as possible, said Sulaiman.

“The commencement of site activities at Elandspruit and having obtained the water-use licence, moves Wescoal closer to its vision of positioning itself as a leading coal miner,” said Sulaiman.