African Mining July 2022 | Page 27

EXCURSION •

Operations overview Tommie Richards , manager for Planning and Optimisation at Grootegeluk Mine took African Mining on a tour of this open cast mine situated 20km from Lephalale in South Africa ’ s Limpopo province while letting us in on the plans for its future .

The importance of this operation lies in the fact that this mega complex holds 50 % of South Africa ’ s remaining coal reserves , and 80 % of Exxaro ’ s coal reserves . Grootegeluk is therefore Exxaro ’ s largest supplier of thermal coal to Eskom and metallurgical coal to Arcelor Mittal ( Mittal ) in South Africa . Notwithstanding that , Grootegeluk supplies the coal that contributes to over 25 % of South Africa ’ s electricity provision .

At first glance , the magnitude of this operation is depicted in its sheer size . The pit itself is 4km in length and 3kms wide with 13 benches going 120m deep and stretching over 1200ha . This conventional truck and shovel operation employs 3 500 permanent employees and produces a total of between 28-30Mt per annum of saleable coal – made up of semi-soft coking coal , thermal coal and metallurgical coal supplied to a combination of domestic and global markets .

The output of this operation is even more astounding . In terms of an existing contract with Eskom , the power station coal produced here comprises 25Mt of this annual production and is transported directly to Eskom ’ s Matimba and Medupi power stations on an impressive 7km conveyor belt system . An additional 1,3Mtpa of metallurgical coal is sold domestically to the metal industry and others on short-term contracts by Grootegeluk and the bulk of 1,2Mtpa of semi-soft coking coal is railed directly to Mittal under a long-term supply agreement , while approximately 1.5Mtpa of semi-soft coking coal and thermal coal is exported to Richards Bay Coal Terminal or sold domestically . There are plans to ramp up this export produce to 3 million tons in future .

In terms of Grootegeluk output , the total ex-pit tons amount to 90 million tons per annum . Of this , ROM ( Run of Mine )