ON SITE
K
hanye Colliery is the third mine in
the developing Bronkhorstspruit
coal belt of Gauteng, and part of
the growing list of assets owned
by Canyon Coal. Under the steady hand
of executive chairman Vuslat Bayoglu,
the company has gone from strength
to strength, and brought Khanye into
production in only 11 months.
Through continued exploration and
strategic acquisitions, Bayoglu has been
able to build up an impressive pipeline
of projects that will ensure Canyon Coal
continues to deliver coal to a growing
market for at least the next 50 years.
Despite its growing list of assets,
Canyon Coal has retained the ability to
make quick decisions and execute them
rapidly. Bayoglu has also been able to
attract and keep some of the best skills
in the coal mining sector, which has been
one of the reasons Khanye is performing
in line with expectations.
www.equipmentandhire.co.za
The Bronkhorstspruit geology is different
to other coal mining regions in the
country, and in a way, Khanye is a test
run for what might follow in an area
desperately in need of development and
employment opportunities.
In the pit
Khanye Colliery is an open cast strip
mining operation and consists of three
pits: North A, North B and South Pit. Guy
Thompson, general manager at Khanye,
explains that North A and North B pits
will eventually merge to become one pit.
“There is an area devoid of coal between
the two pits, but they will still join up
within the next year,” he says.
The mine operates two processing
plants, but the smaller plant that was
erected to handle the initial Run of
Mine (ROM) will eventually make way
for the much bigger and complex plant.
Construction on the second plant is
complete and is in the process of
ramping up to full production. The smaller
plant processes about 100 tonnes of
coal per hour, or 50 000 tonnes of coal
per month, while the bigger plant’s full
capacity is 400 tonnes per hour
(7000 tonnes of coal per day).
The first excavation at Khanye took
place in December 2017 when the
trenching got underway. The first box cut,
in North A pit, was started in January
2018. Contractor Koza Mining takes
care of mining operations in North A pit
and North B pit, while Canyon Mining
Services (CMS), another arm of Canyon
Coal, does all the mining in the South Pit.
Koza Mining uses six LiuGong 650
excavators, and they operate a mixed
fleet of Bell and Volvo B40 and A40
Articulated Dump Trucks (ADTs). In
addition, six Chinese manufactured
LCMG M85 Rigid Dump Trucks (RDTs)
traverse the two pits.
SEPTEMBER 2019
13