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COVER STORY
20
MODERN MINING
October 2015
Kelvin power station in Johannesburg (which
is currently only producing about a third of its
600 MW design capacity). “If this comes off,
ultimately we could see Nsele also supplying
coal to Kelvin, which is only about 70 km from
the mine,” he says.
Van Niekerk notes that the contract with
MCC was negotiated. “We could have gone out
to tender but we’ve had a relationship with
MCC which goes back to 2007, when we were
talking to them about possible contract mining
at an iron ore project we had in West Africa. We
liked what we saw of the company then and
we’re absolutely confident that we’ve made
the right choice in selecting MCC as what is, in
effect, our mining arm.”
Looking at the project from MCC’s perspec-
tive, Colling says that while MCC wins much of
its work on open tender, it prefers to negotiate.
“The reason for this is that we believe we can
add a great deal of value to any open-pit mining
operation and that the best way to realise this
value is via negotiation and, preferably, early
involvement in the project,” he observes. “Our
goal is to become a partner of the client rather
than simply a service provider and to totally
align ourselves with the client’s objectives.
Certainly we’re extremely proud of the fact that
MCC will not only move the tonnage at Nsele
but virtually act as DMC’s mining department,
handling every aspect of the mining operation.”
While the final fleet to be utilised at Nsele
has not yet been finalised, Colling says that
it will probably include at least one Liebherr
R9350 excavator, a 350-ton machine, as well
as a fleet of 150-ton payload dump trucks, on
the overburden and interburden with Liebherr
R984s working in conjunction with 100-ton
dump trucks being used to mine and haul
the coal.
Nsele will join a portfolio of seven other con-
tracts that MCC has, which are spread through
South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique. The
biggest of these is the Benga mine near Tete in
Mozambique, where MCC has been working
since 2011. Volumes on the contract have been
cut in recent months from roughly 2 million
cubes a month to 1,6 million cubes a month
because of market conditions. Says Colling:
“This resulted in us having over-capacity on
site but fortunately we have been able to rent
out some of our machines, including our big
650-ton Liebherr 996 excavator, the biggest
unit in our fleet, to the neighbouring Moatize
mine. We believe this is a relationship which
could grow. We’re in negotiation with our client
ICVL on a possible extension to our contract at
Benga. If that doesn’t come off, then there is the
of this transaction but, suffice it to say, the
acquisition of DMC by Sable was not really
a success. The net result was that Rietkuil
remained on the backburner for several years,
although a full feasibility study was completed
in 2011. Earlier this year I reacquired control of
DMC and we’re now moving at full speed on
Nsele. We’re currently updating the feasibility
to reflect the fact that we’re now planning to
produce thermal coal for local use rather than
export product. The project has had its mining
licence in place for several years and all we’re
now waiting for in terms of permitting is our
water use licence, which we’re expecting immi-
nently. We’re also negotiating with Eskom on
an offtake agreement and these talks are going
very well. If, by any chance, we don’t secure
this agreement, we will still go-ahead with the
mine, as there is a ready market for the prod-
ucts that Nsele can produce.”
Nsele is currently a ‘virgin’ site, which raises
the question of how the coal will be processed.
“We estimate that it will take us about eight
months to build a single wash modular plant
and we’re in advanced negotiations with two
companies who specialise in the design and
construction of plants of this nature and who
both have an excellent track record,” says Van
Niekerk. “Since we’ll start mining before the
plant is operational, we’re looking – in the
interim – at either selling our product to one
of our neighbours who would then undertake
the processing or, alternatively, toll treating
at a neighbouring operation. We’ve spoken
to a couple of our neighbours and both these
approaches are entirely feasible.”
He adds that one of DMC’s divisions, DMC
Energy, is presently negotiating to acquire
MCC’s giant Liebherr 996
shovel, seen here at the
Benga coal mine in Mozam-
bique, is now operating as a
rental unit at the neighbour-
ing Moatize coal mine.