Keaton to start coal production at Klipfontein
September 4th, 2008 | by mantrionline |Coal-mining junior Keaton Energy would start coal production at its Klipfontein project, in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province, immediately, it said on Wednesday.
This comes as the country’s Minerals and Energy department granted its 74%-held subsidiary, Keaton Mining, a mining permit for the project.
Keaton Energy spokesperson James Duncan told Mining Weekly Online that the company had appointed mining contractor Shumba Mining, which was local to the area in Mpumalanga, and already on site.
The company was expecting to sell its first coal to a local merchant next month. The mine would produce about 40 000 t/m.
“Although relatively small, the Klipfontein project allows us to bring coal to market significantly ahead of schedule, demonstrating our commitment to move rapidly from exploration, through development, to mining,” said Keaton Energy MD Paul Miller.
The Klipfontein project should provide Keaton Mining with cash flow for a period of about ten months while its larger Delmas project was developed. The Klipfontein resource was about 400 000 t in total.
The company expects to complete the Delmas project’s bankable feasibility study by October, and to start mining in early 2009. According to its website, the Delmas project had an in-situ mineable coal resource of 178,4-million tons, which it said should support a 250 000 t/m run-of-mine mine from three open pits.
The company had previously said that it planned to produce two-million tons a year of coal.
