You would not know it now if you visited the site, southeast of Hendrina, in Mpumalanga. But these barren fields are giving way to a new source of business, economic activities, jobs, and empowerment opportunities for the local community. The site is home of still-in-the-making Gugulethu Colliery, Canyon Coal’s latest mining operation.  

Gugulethu has an estimated life-of-mine of over 20 years based on a run-of-mine (RoM) production of about 200 000 tons a month from opencast areas and 200 000 tons a month from underground sections. Canyon, one of the subsidiaries of Menar, a private mining investment company, will invest R600-million to develop the opencast phase (Phase 1) of three pits. One of the pits has been designed to create access to the underground reserve as part of Phase 2. Development of the underground mining section is planned to start during the second half of 2028, with a budget of about R890 million. Featuring an economically minable reserve of 14.3 million tonnes of RoM ore, Phase 1 is still on track to begin operations in about 10 months. 

The construction phase of the opencast phase will create more than 200 jobs, which will include prospects for members of the surrounding communities. The overall project will create 430 jobs for local community members as part of the opencast and underground phases of the project. The mine’s social and labour plan (SLP) that will provide local communities with numerous learnership, internship and bursary opportunities. The SLP will also support the community through community development projects and enterprise development projects, which will have a positive lasting impact on local community members. 

Taking the lead on this greenfield project for Canyon Coal is Jarmi Steyn, the General Manager of Gugulethu Colliery. With over 18 years of mining industry experience, the metallurgical engineer is also an expert in supply chain and operations management.  

Her first goal for the mine is to ensure it is developed safely within the necessary timelines and budget. “Then along with the team, I want to see it become a flagship site for Canyon Coal in terms of regulatory compliance and production performance, obviously to ensure maximised stakeholder and shareholder value,” Jarmi states.  

She notes that all the operations that she has previously managed and completed were already operational when she joined. Gugulethu is  special for her because she will oversee its execution from the beginning. “The project management portion thereof I look forward to as well as collaborating with the team to ensure the right things are done the first time around.” 

Jarmi started her career as a bursary student with BHP Billiton at Van Dyks Drift and Middelburg mines and then worked for Umcebo Mining for three years and ran three processing plants for them. She then accepted an opportunity to be the Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) and Process manager at the Benga project in Tete (Mozambique) under Riversdale, a coking coal deposit. From there she moved to Zululand Anthracite Colliery (ZAC) in KwaZulu-Natal, where she served as a Process Manager and later Tendele Mining. During her time at Tendele, she commissioned two plants as a Process Manager. She also managed the mine’s logistics and sales, and later progressed to Chief Operating Officer of Tendele before she joined Canyon Coal.  

Made for Mining 

Jarmi enjoys the mining production environment as there is never a dull moment and there are always opportunities for improvement, optimization, critical thinking, and creativity. “I enjoy building teams and working with people, determining each person’s strengths and weaknesses and harvesting such to ensure a collaborative approach to achieve set targets,” she says. In the early years of her career, she was told to “arrive at work with a sense of purpose and leave with a sense of accomplishment”. “I feel that in the mining industry, this is something that I can achieve daily,” Jarmi asserts. 

She says that as a woman and as a mother to two children, she has never felt that the mining industry is not welcoming to women where she has worked previously. But people are sometimes surprised when a woman is in a senior position in the mining sector. “I have always been treated as an equal  by my colleagues and thus this aspect has never been a contentious issue for me.”  

She is aware that in many industries and workplaces, this is not the case.  “During my career in mining, I have mentored and developed numerous women in various disciplines within the mining industry and I truly believe that they have felt welcomed and part of the teams they operate with.” 

Gugulethu Rising 

Jarmi is hard at work, laying the foundation of the mine.  She is overseeing the development phase, the procurement of civils and plant infrastructure and delivery of yellow equipment. “I am excited to be part of this new chapter for Canyon Coal and for all stakeholders to benefit from the new mine,” Jarmi concludes.  

______________________________