Mooiplaats
| Interest | 100% |
| Location | Ermelo Coal Field 1.7km to Camden Power Station |
| Area | 23,000Ha |
| Resource | 25 million (SAMREC inferred) 88 million (SAMREC measured) |
Overview
The Mooiplaats coal project in which CoAL has a 100% interest is situated in the Ermelo coal fields in the Mpumalanga province in South Africa. Mooiplaats, an underground single seam thermal coal operation, is the closest of the three projects to production. the expectation of management is that mining will commence in the third quarter of 2008, with first production in the fourth quarter of 2008. Mooiplaats is located 1.7km from the recently commissioned Camden Power Station.
An infill drilling program was recently completed bringing the total metres drilled on the project to over 65,000. The plan is to produce 5-6 mtpa of ROM with 70% targeted for the export market and the balance for Camden Power Station. Whilst Mooiplaats will be an underground thermal coal mine the rest are open cast coking coal operations.
Future
Discussions are proceeding with major mining contractors regarding the proposed first stage of the project which is to utilise 2 declines, each producing 200,000 – 250,000 tonnes per month close to the Camden Power Station. Negotiations are underway regarding long term off‐take agreements with Eskom, South Africa’s power parastatal, and various coal trading entities.
Phase 1 Production is expected to commence in the third quarter of 2008 with an increase to 6 mt/pain the last quarter of 2009.