Name of the Project
Moabsvelden coal project.

Location
The project is located in Mpumalanga, South Africa.

Project Owner/s
JSE-listed Wescoal.

Project Description
The project will supply South Africa’s State-owned power utility Eskom’s Kusile power station with about three-million tonnes of coal a year for about ten years.

The first phase of the project involves the development of the boxcut and auxiliary infrastructure to start mining operations and produce a run-of-mine (RoM) product.

Phase 2 will take the project to steady state of 200 000 t of RoM a month and includes a coal handling and processing plant.

To reach the full Eskom contractual supply of three-million tonnes of coal sales a year, a third and final phase of the project will be required and this will involve the development of the VG6 underground project.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Not stated.

Capital Expenditure
Phase 1 is estimated at between R250-million and R290-million.

Capital expenditure (capex) for Phase 2 is expected to be similar to that of Phase 1. Timing and incremental capex for Phase 3 will be confirmed in due course.

Planned Start/End Date
The project development work started in June 2020 pursuant to a ten-year coal supply offtake award by Eskom in July 2019.

The project is expected to ramp up to full target production of 200 000 t of RoM a month over 18 months.

Latest Developments
Wescoal has delivered the first coal from its Moabsvelden mine to State-owned power utility Eskom.

Further, the early-works auxiliary infrastructure projects have been completed and the construction of a pollution control dam is under way.

Additional development workstreams planned for the next few months include a road intersection, a weighbridge, a workshop and office prefabs construction. These will support the ramp-up plan to 160 000 t a month of saleable product by July 2021.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
None stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Wescoal, tel +27 11 049 8611 or email  info@wescoal.co.za.