South Africa has one major sedimentary basin that contains thick, organic-rich shales - the Karoo Basin in central and southern South Africa. The Karoo Basin is large (236,400 mi2), extending across nearly two-thirds of the country, with the southern portion of the basin potentially favorable for shale gas.

The larger Ecca Group, encompassing an interval up to 10,000 ft thick in the southern portion of the basin, is further divided into the Upper Ecca (containing the Fort Brown and Waterford Formations) and the Lower Ecca (containing the Prince Albert, Whitehill and Collingham Formations). The three Lower Ecca formations are the subject of this shale resource assessment.

Currently, raw coal mined through either long wall or bord and pillar mining methods and undergoes primary crushing underground. The De-stoning Plant is proposed to be built on a brownfields site, consisting of transformed land, agriculture and degraded grassland and will link into the existing mine and Eskom infrastructure. The current stockyard system consists of a dual conveyor system for run of mine product, which discharges into a 12 000 ton silo.

The proposed De-stoning Plant and associated discard disposal facility will tie into the current system via conveyor entry and exit locations.

- ROM stockpile to dewater ROM coal surface moisture prior to processing in the de-stoning plant;
- Primary Dry Screening Plant to screen for the correct sizing for the plant;
- Drewboy Dense Medium Separation (DMS) plant to separate the coal from stone and rock.
This section is complete with a degrit circuit to treat the emanating fines;
- Product stockpile to further dewater product coal surface moisture post processing; and
- Discard Silo to provide a surge capacity between the plant and discard disposal site.