Company Announcement - Wescoal is confident that the Elandspruit project ramp up will continue to exceed expectations on the back of a recently concluded Eskom coal supply contract for 221 000 tons of coal from the mine during September and October according to acting CEO Waheed Sulaiman.

“The project has steadily progressed since the granting of an Elandspruit water use license at the end of March this year and is at the point where it will soon reach its planned production rate of 170 000 tons Run of Mine (ROM) per month. Elandspruit Run of Mine has been successfully transported and fed into the nearby Wescoal Processing Plant since July – with the plant and beneficiated product meeting expectations. “The mining team has performed exceptionally well given current challenges in the industry and the fact that the project has to-date been funded from operating cash flows,” he points out.

“The ramp up period has been well managed and ROM production has increased steadily since July. We are on track to reach our target of 170 000 ROM tons per month before the end of the calendar year. While preparing for mining activities at Elandspruit, we front-end loaded a lot of work at the Wescoal Processing Plant and already have a firm handle on its operating parameters and characteristics. This will enable us to rapidly reach its current capacity of just over 150 000 feed tons per month.
“The Elandspruit project is living up to our expectations of being a real catalyst for Wescoal’s growth,” Sulaiman concludes.

Highlights of the Elandspruit’s development progress include
• Water use license granted on 28 March 2015;
• Mine design completed and preferred service providers identified at the end of May 2015;
• Commencement of site establishment activities and first blast at the end of June 2015;
• First coal removed from box cut and delivered to a dedicated ROM stockpile on 15 July 2015. Elandspruit run of mine was subsequently successfully transported and beneficiated at the nearby Wescoal Processing Plant;
• Approximately 43 000 ROM tons was produced during the first month of production;
• First coal from Elandspruit at delivered at the end of July 2015 to non-Eskom customers;
• During August Elandspruit produced approximately 83 000 tons of run of mine which was then successfully beneficiated at the Wescoal Processing Plant; and
• During the first week of September 2015 Wescoal concluded a coal supply agreement with Eskom to supply a total of 221 000 tons of product during September and October 2015.

Wescoal Holdings Limited mines, processes, supplies, sells and distributes coal.  It is listed on the main board of the JSE and its key strategic thrust is to be a leading junior coal miner with a sustainable resource base and a coal trading operation