JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Mining has started at Aim-listed Edenville Energy’s Rukwa coal-to-power project, with the crushing of several hundred tonnes of coal already completed.
The miner on Thursday said the majority of the coal produced so far had been crushed using a temporary crushing facility Edenville refurbished alongside its partner Upendo.
The resulting product has subsequently been sold to a customer with the intention of providing larger-scale, long-term sales once the main wash plant facility is operational.
"I am extremely pleased that, at this early stage in its development, the project has been able to produce a crushed coal product. With the wash plant approaching a point where it can be shipped to site by mid-April, I am confident that we will move towards being able to provide to the market a fully processed coal product in the second quarter,” said CEO Rufus Short.
Meanwhile, Edenville has engaged a specialist logistics company to oversee the containerisation of the wash plant, its shipping to Tanzania from the UK and subsequent road transport to site.
Further earthworks are also being initiated for the plant site and to provide additional access roads for coal trucks. The increase in equipment on site will also allow a run-of-mine coal stockpile to be established to provide feed for the wash plant and crusher when installed on site.
Edenville eventually plans to build a 120 MW to 135 MW power plant at Rukwa.