South Africa-based Wescoal Mining has announced that its coal production for the first half of 2013 reached 89,185 tonnes, an increase of 39 per cent compared to the same period in 2012
Wescoal Mining owns the Intibane and Khanyisa coal mines in Mpumalanga, the former of which has been estimated to have coal reserves of about 1.88mn tonnes with a life of about two years, while the latter reportedly has 1.24mn tonnes of coal with a life cycle of 12 to 18 months, the company said.
Preliminary studies on a third potential mine, Elandspruit, which was bought from Xstrata South Africa, showed that in phase one the mine could produce two million tonnes of coal a year for 15 years. Part of this produce would be sold to the South African utilities governing authority Eskom and a portion of it would be exported, according to Wescoal.
Elandspruit will reportedly be a major project for Wescoal and the goal is to commission the mine next year.
“Management is confident that we can maintain current production volumes for the next six months,” Wescoal Mining said.
Earlier in 2013, Wescoal Mining announced that it had purchased a coal-trading business from MacPhail Coal Distributors, which added bulk to its coal-trading arm.
