Mine excursion
to wash the discard and produce a middling’s
product. The final products and discard are
stockpiled in an area measuring almost 36
hectares.
Khanye has two pollution control dams.
At the moment there are two slurry cells
and filter presses in both plants to handle
the slurry. According to Thompson, the
mine is in the process of installing another
two slurry cells soon which will increase the
capacity and enable the plant to pump slurry
into the slurry cells in case of a breakdown
on the filter press plants. The processing
plant and stockyard areas are surrounded by
concrete lined V drains which feed into the
pollution control dams. All dirty water from
the plant operations or storm water runoff
of the stockyards wash into the V drains and
then into the pollution control dams. The
same water is recirculated back to the plant
for re-use.
The mine is not connected to the Eskom
grid yet, but Canyon Coal has recently
completed a substation on the mine which
will come online soon. The substation was
Khanye is expected to deliver coal for the next
16 years and forms an important part of Canyon
Coal’s pipeline of projects.
built by private contractors. The processing
plants were, until now, powered by two
generators at the big plant and one at the
small plant.
Transport and risks
Washed coal products from Khanye are
transported to the Bronkhorstspruit Siding,
which was constructed by Canyon Coal. The
siding is only 8km from the mine and from
there the coal will be railed to Richards Bay
Coal Terminal.
Thompson regards coal theft as one of the
major challenges and risks for coal mines in
South Africa. “Coal theft is big business in
South Africa. There are illegal coal blending
yards in the coalfields of Mpumalanga.
Truck drivers allegedly get paid up to R3000
per load and they offload good quality coal
at illegal “blending yards”. Sometimes good
quality coal is replaced with inferior quality
coal and then delivered to a customer.”
says Thompson. This was also recently
highlighted by the television programme,
Carte Blanche.
Khanye is expected to deliver coal for the
next 16 years and forms an important
part of Canyon Coal’s pipeline of projects,
making the company one of the prime
movers in the mid-tier coal mining space of
South Africa.
Khanye’s Larko Dem plant is complete and will start operating shortly.
[18] MINING MIRROR JUNE 2019
www.miningmirror.co.za