MINE EXCURSION
PHALANNDWA:
NEW LEASE ON LIFE
Mining operations is at full swing at Canyon Coal’s Phalanndwa Colliery
Extension Project close to Delmas in the Mpumalanga province of South
Africa, after its initial blast in July, writes Leon Louw.
T
he extension project got underway with the first
large-scale blast at Phalanndwa on 17 July 2019.
The project is expected to add an additional eight
years to the life of mine at Phalanndwa. The mine
was established in 2010 and started producing coal three
years later.
The mine consists of an open pit and Canyon targets the Two
Upper coal seam, which is about 0.7m thick, Two Main seam,
which is about 3.5m to 4m thick, and the Two Lower seam,
which ranges from 1.5m to 5.2m in thickness. According to Allan
Mabbett, general manager at Phalanndwa, who is overseeing
the development of the extension project, Canyon currently
mines close to 120 000 tonnes of coal per month, and in the
process removes about 250 000m³ of waste rock and soil every
month to get to the coal. The company uses an opencast strip-
mining method, with rehabilitation of the mined-out area being
done at the same time. Topsoil is removed and placed on dumps
for later final rehabilitation levelling, while soft overburden is
placed on the rehabilitation area. Mabbett says that hard inter-
The Phalanndwa Colliery Extension Project had its first major blast in July 2019.
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African Mining October 2019
www. africanmining.co.za