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November 2015
MODERN MINING
23
COAL
4-Seam loading operations in the VG3 (Vanggatfontein 3) pit.
“running like a dream”
of this writing) has never suffered a fatality.
Vanggatfontein operates to an outsourced
model and Liviero is one of four main contrac-
tors at the mine. The others are Minopex, which
operates the two plants, Fraser Alexander,
responsible for discard management, and
Eqstra Logistics, which handles the transport
of the coal.
The product from the 2-Seam and 4-Seam
which is supplied to Eskom is a 21,5 MJ ther-
mal coal while the 5-Seam product for the
metallurgical market is a 28,5 MJ low contami-
nant, vitrinite dominant bituminous coal. The
5-Seam – absent on many mines in the Witbank
coalfield – is a thin inconsistent seam but since
start-up the product has been a valuable sup-
plement to Vanggatfontein’s revenue stream.
Developments at Vanggatfontein over the
past year have included the opening of Pit 4 to
create further mining flexibility and the com-
missioning at the end of June this year – on
schedule and within budget – of a R41,1 mil-
lion filter press plant. The plant is designed to
reduce the moisture content of the slurry from
the two wash plants to produce a handle-able
filter cake product and dramatically improve
water recovery from the tailings streams. It
also eliminates the need for a new co-disposal
facility.
Early last year Keaton completed its acquisi-
tion of Australia’s Xceed Resources, the target
of the transaction being the Moabsvelden prop-
erty, located just 3,5 km from Vanggatfontein.
Keaton said at the time that Moabsvelden
represented a significant opportunity to grow
its Delmas footprint by developing a satellite
pit operation on the property with all coal