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July 2017
MODERN MINING
11
MINING News
Zululand Anthracite Colliery (ZAC) has
opened its new wash plant in an open-
ing ceremony attended by King Goodwill
Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu. ZAC is located
on the border of the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi
Game Reserve, close to Ulundi, and is
reportedly the sole producer of prime
anthracite in South Africa.
In a ribbon-cutting ceremony held at
the new plant, King Goodwill and the MD
of ZAC, Vuslat Bayoglu, together declared
the wash plant open. Afterwards, the
opening ceremony continued with a
number of speeches being delivered by,
amongst others, Sihle Zikalala, Chairperson
of the ANC in KZN, Judge Ngwenya from
the Ingonyama Trust Board, and Thabo
Mokoena, the Director General of the DMR.
The new coal processing plant has a
50-ton per hour capacity and is expected
to wash 3 million tons of discard over the
next five years. This reclamation of the
long-standing discard dump will decrease
the rehabilitation footprint of ZAC and
Wash plant opened at Zululand Anthracite Colliery
produce 1 million tons of saleable prod-
uct which will be made available for the
export market.
The ZAC resource was discovered in
1985 by BHP Billiton and mining opera-
tions were started in 1987. Over the
years the mine’s owners have included
Riversdale Mining and Rio Tinto. Rio Tinto
sold its 74 % stake in the operation to
The new coal processing plant has a 50-ton per hour capacity.
Luxembourg-based Menar Holding last
year. Menar also controls Canyon Coal,
which has three collieries in Mpumalanga.
ZAC, which has a current life of mine
to 2027, is an underground, deep level,
narrow seam operation, using both con-
tinuous miners and drill-and-blast mining
techniques. Several shafts are currently
operated.