JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Universal Coal has received sufficient debt funding to start second phase opencast operations at its New Clydesdale colliery (NCC), in the Witbank coal basin.
The company now aims to start the operations in January, following the start-up of underground operations, which deliver quality thermal coal, in September.
The underground operation is set to achieve nameplate capacity of 900 000 t/y run-of-mine (RoM) by the end of the current quarter, while the opencast operations will deliver a further 2-million tonnes a year RoM of premium quality domestic thermal and low phos metallurgical coal from the adjacent Roodekop pit once steady state is achieved in mid-2017.
"With comfort on debt funding, we have set a start date of January 2017 as the start of the Roodekop opencast operation. Our focus is squarely fixed upon ramping up the opencast production at NCC,” said Universal CEO Tony Weber.
Once steady state is achieved, Universal will be delivering in excess of four-million tonnes a year sales over its operations.