Following the closing of Aim-listed Edenville Energy's £2.4-million capital raise at the end of May, the thermal coal project developer has been focused on preparing the site to meet the expected demand for its Rukwa coal project, in south-west Tanzania.

This work focused primarily on overburden pre-strip, with 13 000 t of material being removed in September. This has also enabled a further 4 000 t of run-of-mine (RoM) coal to be delivered to the existing wash plant stockpile.

More importantly, it has now provided access, on an ongoing basis, to coal from the Northern zone of the Rukwa deposit, Edenville said on October 6.

Following the overburden removal and the delivery of the remaining equipment and personnel necessary to restart operations, the company was able to run over 400 t of coal through the wash plant.

Mining and processing operations remain ongoing.

The production achieved during the second half of September is already similar to the whole of the first half of the year, the company said.

As previously announced, during the third quarter, Edenville received an order for up to 3 500 t a month of washed coal, which the company believes will result in an average monthly delivery of at least 2 000 t.

Edenville’s focus is to bring operations to an initial rate of processing 3 000 t of washed coal a month in the current quarter, which will enable the company to also satisfy an order of 600 t a month of washed coal from one of its long-standing customers, which has advised Edenville it would like to restart deliveries from November following a Covid-related forced closure earlier this year.

In addition, following recent positive trial shipments, Edenville is in the process of providing further sample sizes to a potential customer in East Africa which has indicated a demand for 3 000 t a month of washed coal upon confirmation of suitability.

The existing processing facilities have a capacity of 12 500 t a month and, accordingly, the company is confident it will be able to satisfy any additional demand beyond the aforementioned orders.

  Further discussions have also been held with senior advisers to the Tanzanian government during September, with follow up meetings scheduled for October.