High expectations for phalanndwa in 2022
Phalanndwa Colliery Extension project commenced operation in July 2019
Phalanndwa Extension, located near Delmas in Mpumalanga, has been ramped to mine over 120 000 tons a month of the run of mine coal and process similar volumes as well. The mine is consistently reaching its targets and the aim is to ensure that it meets or exceeds this every month in 2022.
Kgotso Mongalo, the GM for Phalanndwa Extension and Ukufisa collieries, notes that the Phalanndwa Extension has an eight-year life of mine and is an extension of Phalanndwa Colliery, which has depleted its resource. The 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 consists of an open pit which it extracts run of mine (ROM) coal from the two upper coal seams, which is about 0.7 m thick, two main seam, which is about 3.5 m to 4 m thick, and the two lower seam, which ranges from 1.5 m to 5.2 m in thickness.
Phalanndwa uses an opencast strip-mining method, with the rehabilitation of the mined-out area done simultaneously. Topsoil is removed and placed on dumps for later final rehabilitation levelling, while soft overburden is placed on the rehabilitation area. The hard interseam waste and shale are loaded and trucked to discard dumps in the pit.
All coal produced is washed according to RB3 specification. The mine produces run-of-mine coal with an average calorific value of about 22.5 MJ/kg, an ash content of about 19%, volatiles of about 24%, inherent moisture of about 5%, a total moisture of about 9% and a sulphur content of about 1.2%. The Phalanndwa drum and cyclone processing plant has a design capacity of 300 tons per hour and achieves an average yield of about 55%.
Kgotso attributes the well-functioning nature of the operation to his operations team. “They make it easier to run the mine efficiently and safely,” he states. The support he receives from Canyon Coal COO Clifford Hallatt is of great importance to Kgotso. “His belief in me has been a major motivating factor.”
Kgotso highlights that team members such as Senior Foreman Eric Vuma and Senior Foreman Andrew Matamata have played their roles in ensuring the success of the mine. “They have succeeded because I didn’t micromanage them, but instead believed in and trusted them that they will get things done correctly, which they did. It will take a collective by all the mining and plant team to make sure we continue to meet our targets in a safe, cost-effective manner for the next 12-months of 2022,” Kgotso concludes
