African Mining July 2022 | Page 29

EXCURSION •

Grootegeluk disposed of assets not directly required to support the LOM , such as the divestment in Thabametsi and the halting of the GG9 project . More productive additional areas were explored such as the holding of Turfvlakte as a runaway panel and the additional maintenance to upkeep GG4 and 5 .

Pursuing the optimal product mix He notes that Exxaro leveraged advanced analytics in 2021 to continuously drive a high-value strategy to augment the uncertainty in the global thermal coal market . Using market insight , Grootegeluk continuously optimises its product mix to meet the market need , building-in production flexibility to align with this need . “ The advantage that Grootegeluk has , lies in its size . We ' ve got scale and we ' ve got the economies that we can run , to make sure that we run at the lowest cost . In addition to this we have a vast range of coal products that we can deliver to market ,” says Richards .

He adds , “ The focus has been on maximising the high value products such as the SSCC and Metallurgical coal , and we will continue this strategy for as long as possible , making sure that we are the lowest cost supplier to Eskom and the HVP market to gain market share , supported by an additional effort to extend train capacity to sustain increased export volumes .”

Securing Continuity “ The current focus for GG involves ensuring we secure continuity as the most reliable supplier to Eskom and other domestic customers at a competitive price ,” says Richards . “ We plan to do this by leveraging Digital @ Exxaro initiatives to minimise unplanned disruptions to our value chain while protecting the safety and health of our workers .”

Maximising throughput Continually optimising the value chain to enable the sweating of the current assets to 36.3Mt , consisting of 29.2Mt PSC and 7.1Mt HVP , involving once again the leveraging of digital and automation solutions to increase efficiency and effectiveness and to continue pit optimisation removing current plant , dispatch , and train capacity bottlenecks will ultimately maximise throughput .

Beyond 2023 “ Minimising our carbon footprint and reliance on external energy sources , while maximising our societal contribution is paramount for us . This includes creating alternative energy generation capacity to support GG energy requirements , such as renewable energy projects , while investigating waste , emission reduction and water conservation . We will continue to leverage our core capabilities to drive economic and social development for our host communities too .

“ Finally Shifting to alternative revenue streams will be a drive going forward ,” says Richards . Starting to augment coal revenue with adjacent revenue streams to create new job opportunities will be vital , such as commercialising carbon allotropes , by-products and waste . Leveraging the land footprint for alternative revenue streams and cost optimisation , and elevating enabling capabilities into services provided to third parties , will be a focus too ,” says Richards .

Grootegeluk has indeed lived up to its name . Exxaro has taken its people with on this journey to success which has brought both ‘ luck ’ and ‘ happiness ’ through the economic stability it has brought to the Waterberg . Its success in driving the economy in the Waterberg community for the past 40 years bears testament to its name .

See our Grootegeluk – living up to its name : Part 2 in next months issue where we look at the Digital @ Exxaro initiatives pulled through at Grootegeluk to sweat the asset in a safe , cost-effective and most environmentally sustainable way . •

The growth journey at Grootegeluk has been nothing short of incredible over the past 20 years .