JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South African coal junior Miranda Minerals said that its Sesikhona colliery, in KwaZulu-Natal, had received the machinery required for production to start.

CEO Ron Nel noted in a monthly newsletter to shareholders that mining contractor, Stefanutti Stocks Mining Services, has begun removing topsoil, terracing the area, constructing haulage roads and storm-water trenches.

The recruitment and training of the required workforce was also proceeding “satisfactorily”, he said.

The flagship colliery, which was Miranda’s first opencast coal mine to start production, was expected to produce about 70 000-t/m run-of-mine over the 50 months of the phase-one development.

A number of other Miranda collieries would go into production in the months to come.

Miranda has a Samrec-compliant coal resource of about 120-million tons, with prospecting rights covering 106 000 ha in the KwaZulu-Natal coalfields.

The company holds about 30 prospecting rights in the area, and has already submitted applications for mining rights for its Uithoek and Burnside projects.

Meanwhile, Nel said that the company, which is also exploring for base metals, precious metals and diamonds, was still planning to list its coal assets in a separate entity on the ASX.

Possible structures that were under consideration included: an initial public offering, a reverse listing into an existing listed “shell” company or a merger with another listed junior coal miner.

Nel stated that the listing of its coal assets on the ASX would be the most efficient way to raise funds to realise the company’s objective of bringing one project a year on stream over a five-year period.

The raising of funds would also allow for the development of logistics infrastructure and to advance Miranda’s portfolio of coal exploration projects.