Operations

Goedehoop colliery is situated about 40km east of Witbank in the Mpumalanga Province.

Established in April 1983, the mine underwent a merger with Bank colliery in 2005 and produces more than 11 million tonnes of number two and four seam coal from four underground operations a year.

These include the Hope, Vlaklaagte, Simunye and South shafts. Coal is also mined from the Vlaklaagte and Haasfontein mini-pit operations. Two processing plants produce 7.5 million saleable tonnes a year, which is sold mainly to the export market.

Greenside colliery is situated 15km south-west of Witbank in Mpumalanga and forms part of the South African Coal Estates Complex (SACE), which includes Landau and Kleinkopje collieries.

The mine was established to supply coal to overseas markets through the Richards Bay Coal Terminal, as well as a small quantity of coal for domestic use.

Its total output is 4.4 million run of mine tonnes a year which equates to 3.1 million saleable tonnes of coal. It has four underground continuous miner sections.

Kleinkopje colliery is an open-pit mine situated eight kilometres south of Witbank in Mpumalanga and forms part of the South African Coal Estates Complex.

It mines new reserves as well as large areas that were previously mined underground using bord and pillar techniques. Its principal product is steam coal for the export market, with some coal also being generated for the inland or local market.

Coal is transported by an 8.5 kilometre overland conveyor to the company’s Rapid Loading Terminal. The mine produces between four and 4.5 million tonnes a year.

Zibulo colliery is situated about 25km south-east of Ogies, Mpumalanga, and is the first of several Anglo Inyosi coal mines to come on stream.

The colliery forms part of the Witbank coalfields and comprises both an underground and open-pit operation. Its underground mine will mine an annual seven million tonnes of two, four and five seam coal while its open-pit operation will produce one million tonnes of coal a year.

Primary export product is railed to the Richards Bay Coal Terminal and secondary middlings is sold to the local market.

Located in Witbank, Mpumalanga, Landau colliery forms part of the South African Coal Estates Complex and comprises four sections – the Kromdraai open-cast mine, Excelsior, the Schoongezicht mini-pit and the Umlalazi mini-pit.

A total of 3.1 million tonnes of coal is produced for the export market annually and is conveyed to the company’s Rapid Loading Terminal for transportation to the Richards Bay Coal Terminal.

A further 900,000 tonnes is provided for the domestic market and is dispatched by road and rail. Some 210,000 tonnes of coal a year is currently supplied to Eskom for the generation of electrical power.

Mafube colliery is a 50/50 joint venture between Thermal Coal and Exxaro, and is situated about 37km east of Middelburg, Mpumalanga.

The colliery started out as a mini-pit operation in June 2004, to supply coal to Eskom’s Arnot Power Station. Since its final commissioning in January 2008, it has grown to produce an annual 2.5 million tonnes of low ash coal for export and 1.7 million tonnes of steam coal for the domestic thermal market.

Kriel colliery is situated 45km south of Witbank, near Bethal, Mpumalanga, and was established in 1975 to provide coal for Eskom’s Kriel Power Station.

It mines more than 10 million tonnes of coal per annum using bord and pillar methods at its underground operation, while its open pit mine extracts coal using draglines, trucks and shovels.

Kriel colliery forms part of Anglo Inyosi Coal (AIC), an empowered coal company housing key current and future domestic and export-focussed coal operations. In terms of an agreement signed in 2007, Inyosi, a newly formed broad-based black economic empowered company, will acquire 27% of AIC, creating a company valued at R7 billion and incorporating several key Anglo Coal assets. One of these is Kriel colliery.

New Denmark colliery, situated in the Highveld coalfields 30km north of Standerton, Mpumalanga, is one of the deepest coal mines in South Africa and is one of few in the country to employ the longwall mining method.

Commissioned in 1982, it extracts four seam coal from its Central and Okhozini shafts, producing five million tonnes of coal for Eskom’s Tutuka Power Station per annum. The mine acquired a new R720 million longwall at the end of 2009.

New Vaal colliery is situated on the banks of the Vaal River in the Maccauvlei area, immediately south of Vereeniging in the Free State Province.

It was established in the 1980s to exploit the remaining reserves in the area for the supply of low grade coal to Eskom's Lethabo Power Station until 2030.

The mine produces at a rate of almost 18 million tonnes a year. The operation uses open-cut strip mining methods to extract remnant coal pillars left from underground mining that took place in the area during the 1960s.

Isibonelo colliery is located about 120km due east of Johannesburg, and was officially opened in April 2005.

It was established following the signing of contractual agreements between Anglo Thermal Coal and Sasol Mining to jointly develop the Kriel South coal reserve. The infrastructure and employees of the operation were taken over from Sasol, and this is the first operation of its kind where a complete transfer of equipment, assets and labour force has been successfully achieved.

Isibonelo is a producer of thermal coal for conversion into synthetic fuel by Sasol and produces five million tonnes a year.

Anglo Thermal Coal has a 27% shareholding in the Richards Bay Coal Terminal, one of the largest export coal terminals in the world.

The 24-hour operation is situated in the Port of Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal and has a design capacity of 76 million tonnes a year. It shares a strong co-operative relationship with South Africa’s national rail utility, Transnet Freight Rail, which laid the 560km railway line linking coal mines to the port, while the Transnet National Ports Authority coordinates the arrival and departure of more than 700 ships a year.

With the completion of the terminal’s Phase V expansion project in mid-2010, the RBCT will increase its capacity to 91 million tonnes a year.

The Phola coal processing plant is a 50:50 joint venture between Anglo Inyosi Coal (AIC) and BHP Billiton Energy Coal South Africa (BECSA) and is fed equally by AIC’s Zibulo colliery and BECSA’s Klipspruit mine.

The project includes run-of-mine storage and materials-handling systems, domestic and export product storage, rail lines and two rapid rail load-out stations.