Name: Goedgevonden Complex.
Location: The Goedgevonden mine is situated in the Witbank coalfield, in Mpumalanga, in South Africa.
Mine Owner/s: African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) and Glencore Operations South Africa. ARM’s attributable beneficial interest in the Goedgevonden operations is 26%, with balance held by Glencore.
Brief Description: Goedgevonden is an openpit mine that produces export and domestic thermal coal.
Brief History: From 1964 to 2004, a total of 548 surface diamond boreholes were drilled at the Goedgevonden deposit by Duiker Mining and Xstrata SA. Anglo Coal drilled an additional 102 boreholes for the Zaaiwater area. Most boreholes were drilled down to basement to define the seam locality and basement topography. Owing to the different campaigns, the database had to be validated to produce a consistent set of data.
Primary Metals/Minerals: Thermal coal.
Secondary Metals/Minerals: Not stated.
Geology/Mineralisation: The stratigraphy of the Witbank coalfield comprises five the No 1 to No 5 coal seams. The seams vary in thickness from less than 0.5 m to more than 6 m and do not exceed 300 m in depth from surface. All the coal seams are developed on Goedgevonden.
The coal seams dip at less than 5°. Coal seam morphology and qualities may be locally influenced by basement topography, surface weathering and intrusion of dolerite dykes and sills. The coal qualities vary within and between individual coal seams.
The No 1 Seam is of low quality, thin and only developed in paleo-low areas. The No 2 Seam is extensively developed and is of good quality and is, on average, 6 m thick. The No 3 Seam is of good quality but, with an average thickness of only 0.3 m, is uneconomic. The No 4 Seam is influenced by weathering and is not as extensively developed. The No 5 Seam is of good quality, but is preserved as erosional remnants on the high ground only and, therefore, not extensively developed over the area.
No major faults, structural disturbances or intrusives have been observed in the boreholes drilled to date.
Reserves: Total proven and probable reserves as at December 31, 2019, were estimated at 280-million tonnes.
Resources: Total measured and indicated resources as at December 31, 2019, were estimated at 497-million mineable tonnes in situ (MTIS). Inferred mineral resources are estimated at 1 MTIS.
Mining Method: Openpit mechanised mine. Opencast dragline mining operations in the area are extracting the No 2, No 4 and No 5 seams.
Flowsheet: Not stated.
Prospects: None stated.
Contact Details:
ARM
Tel +27 11 779 1300
Email ir.admin@arm.co.za
Website: www.arm.co.za