JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Competition Commission has unconditionally approved coal junior Wescoal’s R36,5-million acquisition of the Khanyisa mine, in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province, the coal-miner reported on Thursday.

The JSE-listed company announced in June that it had bought the mine from Nucoal Mining to build its asset base.

At the time, it noted that it was seeking additional coal resources and that the Khanyisa mine, which stretched three portions of the farm Heuwelfontein 215 IR, had a remaining measured coal reserve of 4,5-million tons and further indicated resources of 0,5-million tons.

About 100 000-t/m run-of-mine (ROM) was being extracted from the two operational opencast pits at the mine, which was close to Kendal, but coal was not processed on site.

Wescoal noted that the acquisition would substantially reduce its ROM input costs and lead to constant quality ROM.

This could also potentially double Wescoal’s current processing capacity to about 40 000 t/m, when required, while also allowing the junior miner to enter new markets, owing to greater sustainability of quality ROM, it reported.

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