Waterberg Coal, which is said to have identified a resource of more than three-billion tonnes of coal in the Waterberg, told Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly last month that the company expected its first shipments of export coal to take place in the third quarter of 2016, building up to four-million tonnes a year by 2020.

It added that the profitability of this export project would be helped by the supply of lower-grade coal to a 600 MW independent power producer, following its involvement in the Department of Energy’s bid invitation process.

Earlier this year, a successful bulk sample burn test at the Majuba power station raised hopes that the way had been opened for the company’s coal to be used at the Majuba power station, in Mpumalanga.

Technical work the company had been doing with Eskom was expected to result in the concluding of a price agreement with the State utility to supply ten-million tons of coal a year to Majuba for 30 years on a take-or-pay basis.

While most South African coal projects are predicated on delivering low-quality coal to Eskom and high-quality coal to the export market, the intention of Waterberg Coal’s project was to supply export quality coal to Eskom, for which it was negotiating a price matching the additional heat provided.

The plan now is for that coal to bypass the domestic market and be put into the export market by Waterberg Coal, a company which is a reconfiguration of dual-listed Firestone Energy and has Sekoko Resources, led by Tim Tebeila, as its black economic- empowerment partner, with former Mpumalanga Premier Mathews Phosa as its chairperson.

Chartered accountant Miller cut his teeth in mining under gold developer Robert de Crespigny, who grew Normandy Mining from a $1-million shell to a $3-billion company in 16 years, and was also involved in the acquisition from BHP and Shell Minerals in 1992 of the Lennard Shelf lead/zinc operations in the Pilbara district of Western Australia, which grew from a $1-million shell company to a $400-million market capitalisation in 12 months.