In January this year multidisciplinary professional services firm Arup was appointed by coal company Exxaro Resources to complete the design, tender and construction monitoring of the infrastructure and site development of Exxaro’s Belfast coal project, in Mpumalanga.

Arup notes that the project entails establishing water management, pollution control dams, on- and off-site road networks, and sewer reticulation, including a sewage treatment plant and potable-water storage, as well as the structural design of the workshops and relevant structural items.

The company is also responsible for construction monitoring of all the buildings on site, including offices, ablution facilities and the electrical reticulation of the entire site, as well as provincial roads – which have to meet provincial standards – around the mine site.

Arup will not be involved in further development at the mine beyond the scheduled 2017 completion date. However, the company will be responsible for developing management and maintenance manuals for the mine, which will assist the operators in maintaining and managing the mine beyond infrastructure completion.

Meanwhile, mining, infrastructure and process plant designer DRA will be responsible for the detailed design and engineering of a 500 t/h coal processing project, including a two-stage dense-medium beneficiation plant, a fine coal dense-medium section for fines treatment, a system for the filtration of slimes, as well as associated product handling systems.

Mine residue and environmental engineering consultants Epoch Resources are responsible for the detailed design and engineering of the discard disposal facility.

Water, wetlands and environmental engineers GroundTruth are contracted to do the detailed design and engineering of wetland rehabilitation interventions.

About Belfast Coal Project
The proposed coal project entails the development of an openpit and underground mine to produce an estimated 2.2-million tonnes a year of A-grade thermal coal and 500 000 t/y of Eskom coal.

Exxaro plans to spend R3.8-billion on building the mine, which will produce coal for export and supply one of State-owned power utility Eskom’s plants.

The mine is forecast to start output in the second half of 2017 and ramp up in 2018.