South Africa-focused coal miner Universal Coal has delivered the first product from its New Clydesdale Colliery (NCC) to power utility Eskom.
Universal returned the NCC to operation in September 2016 and, in November 2016, inked an agreement with Eskom for the supply of 1.2-million tonnes of coal a year over a seven-year period.
Underground operations at NCC were now progressing, with two underground sections having delivered 67 000 t of coal for February, with the addition of a third underground section to start production this month.
Operational Units On the processing side, the two operational units of the coal handling and processing plant processed 200 000 t of coal for February.
Meanwhile, the boxcut development, which started in January, remains on schedule with the first overburden blast successfully completed and, with first run-of-mine coal scheduled for the end of this month, the opencast coal will be processed in April, ensuring contractual sales dates will be exceeded.