PERTH (miningweekly.com) - South Africa-focused Coal of Africa (CoAL) issued force majeure notices to its customers following a derailment of ten wagons on the Maputo rail corridor earlier this month.
CoAL was advised by freight operator Transnet Freight Rail that the rail traffic could be suspended for at least seven weeks, with Transnet’s attempts to establish alternative routes to the Matola port thusfar proving unsuccessful.
CoAL told shareholders that it would implement measures at all its operations to mitigate the commercial and operational impact of the force majeure, and noted that production at its Mooiplaats and Woestalleen operations would continue until stockpile capacity was exhausted.
The existing stockpiles at the Vele operation were at full capacity and resulted in the temporary suspension of production at the mine. The suspension would preserve cash resources by reducing costs, as the colliery was currently in developmental and product testing phase.
Essential services at Vele would continue, and a buffer contingency plan had been initiated to enable production to restart within 24 hours, once Transnet resumes operations on the Matola rail corridor.