Overview

Mine Type	Underground
Status	Active
Commodities	Coal (hard coking)
Mining Method	Pillar extraction Bord-and-pillar Blast Hole Stoping
Production Start	...
Mine Life	...
Snapshot	Buffalo Coal’s combined anthracite resources are referred to as the Aviemore Mine and include the anthracite resources currently mined at Aviemore East, along with the anthracite resources to be mined at the Company’s two future coal mining projects, the Balgray anthracite project (“Balgray”) which is an extension of the Aviemore East reserve and the Aviemore North Adit anthracite project. After Aviemore East will be depleted operations will then be relocated to Balgray which is situated some four kilometres southeast of Aviemore East. Coal mined will continue to be processed at the Coalfields processing plant. Balgray is planned to be the medium-term replacement for the Aviemore East, which will allow the current anthracite production levels to continue to operate economically for a further 7 years. Due to the delisting the Company's common shares, Buffalo Coal stopped publishing Financial Information from Q4 2022.

Deposit type

• Sedimentary

Summary:

The surface geology covering the Aviemore area is mainly composed of the coal-bearing Vryheid Formation (Pv), with Karoo aged dolerites and Volksrust Formation (Pvo) present within the central parts of the site . The Vryheid Formation is present within the majority of the mine properties and sub-outcrop along the boundaries of the exposed dolerite. Dolerite is exposed over the central parts of the study area as a prominent hill formed by a dolerite sill. Volksrust Formation rocks outcrop within the central part of the site around the hill formed by a dolerite sill. Quaternary deposits are located within riverbeds towards the north and north-east of the site.

The Aviemore Colliery was divided into an Impati North section (includes the area covered by 174MR and the northern parts of 301MR) and an Impati South section (covered by 100083MR and the southern portions of 301MR) in the 2014 Gemecs resource report.

The Vryheid formation in the Impati North section is about 380 m thick. In the Impati North section, the Utrecht and Zuinguin dolerite sills are present. At least three major displacements occur in the resource area which range from 20 m to 50 m. The flat plateau of the Impati Mountain in the Impati South section comprises the partially weathered upper zone of a ±100 m dolerite sill overlying a thin ±10 m basal unit of the Volksrust Formation (Upper Ecca Group), grading downwards into the dolerite dyke and sill intruded sediments of the Vryheid Formation (Middle Ecca Group). The Vryheid Formation hosts the very poorly to moderately developed Bonas and Fritz Seam coal seams, a poorly to moderately developed Alfred Seam and a reasonably developed Gus Seam which is the economic mining target. A thick dolerite sill transgresses the sediments along the northern scarp of Impati Mountain in a southerly direction with an upwards displacement of the coal seam horizons of about 37 m to the south. A complex transgressive ring dyke structure has been roughly outlined below the western scarp of Impati Mountain which hosts an inaccessible ± 40 m downthrown coal area. The coal horizons within this block are severely dolerite intruded. The heat of the dolerite intrusions has devolatilised the coal horizons.

The main economic coal seams locally identified within Aviemore Colliery area are the Gus and Alfred coal seams, which are developed over large parts of the project area. The Gus seam attains an average thickness of approximately 1.75 m within the study area, with maximum seam thicknesses of above 3.00 m encountered in small areas of the north and south-western parts of the site.

The Alfred seam has an estimated average thickness of 0.82 m and reaches thicknesses of over 1.50 m within the south-western corner of the mineral rights boundary. The coal occurrence is controlled by the current surface topography and resultant weathering profile. The main coal seams generally sub-outcrop in regions where the surface elevations drop below 1280 mamsl towards the north and east of the site.

DEPOSIT TYPES
The Karoo Supergroup of late Carboniferous to Middle Jurassic age (320 – 180 Ma) hosts all of the South African coal deposits and was formed in the great Gondwana basin which comprises parts of Southern Africa, India, Antarctica, Australia and South America. South African coal, in common with other Gondwana coals, was therefore formed in a cold to cool climate, in contrast with the Carboniferous Laurasian coals that owe their origin to tropical rain forests.

South African coal deposits are confined within the main Karoo basin and specifically within the Vryheid Formation of the Ecca Group. The coal deposits are found in two major tectonic settings, namely stable cratonic platforms and fault-bounded rift basins. Those in the main Karoo basin are typical of the former and those of the northern parts of South Africa, of the latter. In the main Karoo basin, the rank of the Ecca coal increases in an easterly direction.

Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Processing

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Production

Commodity	Units	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015
Coal (hard coking)	t	....	....	....	292,007	323,078	321,208	338,620	299,126

Operational metrics

Metrics	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015
Coal tonnes mined	....	....	....	451,054 t	487,398 t	487,162 t	496,343 t	472,994 t
Tonnes processed	....	....	....	485,382 t	485,067 t
Raw coal annual capacity	....	....	....

Personnel

Job Title	Name	Profile	Ref. Date
.......................	.......................		Sep 20, 2024