COO's Message | Edition 011
Clifford Hallatt - Canyon Coal COO
2022 was an exceptional year for the company. The mines performed beyond expectations which allowed us to meaningfully contribute to meet the global coal demand. We are grateful towards all of our employees, contractors and suppliers who made 2022 a success. That success has now turned into a good challenge, as it has set the benchmark for 2023. This year is expected to be another momentous year and will build on our goal of becoming a major player in the South African coal space.
The construction and development of our new major mine, Gugulethu Colliery in Hendrina, is underway. Once steady state has been achieved, this mine will produce 200 000 tons of run-of-mine (RoM) which will be processed on-site in our 400 ton/hour processing plant. We are relocating one of our existing plants for this purpose and we will primarily produce an RB3 product for the export market. We will commence with the mining of the opencast portions whereafter we will develop the underground sections which will maintain the RoM production.
We have recently appointed veteran miner Jarmi Steyn as the General Manager for Gugulethu Colliery. Jarmi has over 18 years of experience in the mining sector and is also our first woman General Manager in the Canyon Coal Group. This appointment is in line with our vision to increase the number of women in leadership positions in the company. We have great confidence in Jarmi and her team that is tasked to accomplish the project milestones that have been set for them.
We also aim to start the construction of our Thuso Colliery (formerly Witfontein) during 2023, once all statutory approvals have been granted. The project is located north-west of Bethal in Mpumalanga. Thuso is primarily an underground mine with a scheduled life of nine years, and we intend to produce 100 000 tons of RoM.
During 2022, we increased the mining and processing targets at Phalanndwa Colliery from 120 00 to 170 000 tons per month. Under the leadership of Kgotso Mongalo, the mine successfully achieved the adjusted target and has often exceeded monthly expectations. Khanye Colliery has also been consistently meeting its mining and processing targets and production exceeded the annual target of 2.4 million tons in 2022. We are incredibly grateful towards Jaco Schroeder and his management team for this achievement and wish them all the best for the year ahead.
On the environmental front, we have commenced the large-scale rehabilitation of our Hakhano Colliery which was our first opencast mine in the group. Mining at Hakhano commenced in 2009 and the reserve was depleted in 2019. The rehabilitation aims to ensure the site can be used for post-mining land uses with commercial agriculture being the ultimate target. We have also recently joined the Bettercoal Assessment Process, which you will read more about in this edition.
Our first-generation local economic development (LED) initiatives for Khanye and Phalanndwa Extension are both nearing completion. The handover of the completed Argent water supply project (Phalanndwa LED) and the Mkhambi Primary School upgrade project (Khanye LED) will take place in the first quarter of this year.
We wish all our employees a safe and prosperous 2023.
