Specialist assessments required for the draft environmental impact report for the proposed extension and remediation of the discard dump and two pollution control dams at the North Shaft section of local coal mining and beneficiation company Kuyasa Mining’s Delmas coal mine are currently under way.

The draft report is expected to be submitted to the Mpumalanga Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environ-mental Affairs in September this year.

Engineering and environmental consultancy Jones & Wagener (J&W), the environmental consultant on the project, is conducting the studies, which include discard coal calorific content studies and wetland delineation, as well as aquatic, air quality, geohydrological and surface-water assessments.

J&W technical director Marius van Zyl tells Mining Weekly that the draft report is part of the requirements for environmental authori- sation from the department. In addition to the authoriation, an updated environmental management programme will have to be submitted to the Department of Mineral Resources as part of the requirements of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA).

The final scoping report of the authorisation, which was submitted to the department in February 2015, received approval in April last year. In March this year, the department approved an extension for the submission of the draft report.

Van Zyl notes that the submission of the applications has been delayed, owing to some outstanding information.

says that the proposed extension and remediation of the Delmas coal mine are intended to increase the life-of-mine by about 30 years.

He explains that the upgrade of the coal discard facility will result in Kuyasa’s reclaiming coal from the dump sites, as the calorific content of this dump is quite high and suitable for use in the planned KiPower independent power producer coal-fired plant. He also notes that Kuyasa’s reclamation strategy authoriation could significantly reduce Delmas’ coal discard remediation costs in the long term.

Meanwhile, he explains that the reconstruction of the pollution control dams was necessary, owing to the degradation of the existing facilities, which were constructed in about 1964, when the mine first started operating.

Jones & Wagener has designed new dams as part of the mitigatory measures, with composite clay and high-density polyethylene linings to limit the potential migration of impacted mine water from the operations. The water in the pollution control dams is reused on the mine to limit overall water use.

In November last year, Kuyasa subsidiary KiPower was granted integrated environmental authorisation (IEA) for the construction of the 600 MW KiPower coal-fired independent power plant, which is planned to be developed within 5 km of the Delmas coal operation, from which the power station will source coal, including reclaimed discard coal.

The $1.7-billion facility could potentially be expanded to produce up to 2 000 MW in the longer term.

The project will include the development of four 150 MW circulating fluidised bed units, each boasting a 400 kV three-phase transformer, as well as an ash disposal facility.

An 812-m-long sorbent conveyer will transport sorbent from the railway siding to the overland coal conveyers, which will carry the coal from the Delmas mine to the new power plant.