OPTIMUM COLLIERIES INVESTMENT - Optimum Coal

6
OPTIMUM COAL INVESTS IN SUSTAINABILITY
In the Kwagga North area, coal will be mined
from the reserve by opencast methods,
similar to those currently employed at
Optimum Colliery, using the existing
mining equipment. Total Project capital
includes purchase of land, relocation of
communities and graves, environmental
infrastructure, haul roads, power and water
infrastructure, tip, crushing facilities and
an overland belt to the Central tip.
The total reserve is scheduled to produce
approximately 35 million tonnes saleable
Export and approximately 30 million
tonnes saleable ESKOM. The following activities
are planned and need to be implemented at Kwagga
North to facilitate mining. The infrastructure is to
be developed primarily in two phases:
PHASE 1
• Temporary access road and dragline walkway
across Bosmansspruit;
• Dig new box-cut in the south of Kwagga North;
• Extend power lines to new box-cut area to
facilitate mining with dragline;
• Construct haul road to interconnect Kwagga
North with current Kwagga operations;
• Construct safety/fl ood prevention berm along
southern portion of the new Kwagga North
haul road;
• Implement clean and dirty water management
controls and ensure pump infrastructure is
adequate to dewater operational pits;
• Ensure above infrastructure is functional by
end September 2009 to facilitate mining in
October 2009;
• Replace temporary change house with
•
permanent change house
Purchase additional surface rights to cover the
bigger Kwagga North mining area.
OPTIMIZER
KWAGGA NORTH PROJECT
Status and Progress
PHASE 2
• Move communities, schools and graves on the
bigger Kwagga North area;
• Commence with the construction of an
additional stream crossing to accommodate
the Kwagga belt extension and an additional
haul road;
• Extend the new haul road to cover the northern
portions of the coal reserve;
• Construct an overland conveyor from the
Kwagga Central tip to the Kwagga North mining
area to convey coal to the processing plant at
the Optimus area of the mine;
• In addition, some of the existing conveyor
infrastructure requires upgrading to handle the
tonnages planned. Conveyors KW02, KW03 and
S3 will be upgraded as part of the project;
• Dig new box-cuts along the western and
northern portions of the coal reserve;
• The new pits located at Kwagga North will
transfer raw coal by means of an overland
conveyor system to the plant. To handle this
coal it will be necessary to transfer the coal
from the rear dump trucks that haul it out of
the mining pit into a tip and then crush the
raw feed to a size suitable for handling on
the conveyor system. This confi guration will
include a rotary breaker. To de-link the mining
operation from the running of the overland
conveyor, a 10,000 tonne bunker is planned.
This will also create fl exibility in that if lower
quality coal is being conveyed from the rest of
the operation, then Kwagga North operations
can continue fi lling the bunker or visa versa.
• Implement clean and dirty water management
controls and ensure pump infrastructure is
adequate to dewater operational pits;
• Ensure above infrastructure is functional by
June 2011 to facilitate mining.
With the exception of the purchasing of farm land,
all the activities listed in Phase 1 of the project
were completed in August 2009. In addition to the
initial work, the initial box-cut has been extended to
optimise coal exposure with the dragline BE09.
Currently the project is focusing on the
relocation of some of the farming communities as
well as the purchasing of farmland.