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Location: 31 km E from Delmas, South Africa
Farm 34 IS District CologneRegistration Division ISOgiesSouth Africa2230
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SAEC has been renamed Seriti Power, and comprises the Khutala, Klipspruit, and Middelburg Mines Services (MMS) North and South mines, which provide coal to the Kendal and Duhva power stations, as well as export coal via the Richards Bay Coal Terminal. Seriti holds a 90% interest in Seriti Power, while an Employee Trust and Community Trust each hold a 5% interest.
The primary geology and stratigraphy at Khutala is typical of the Witbank Coalfield. The development of the No.2 and No.4U Seams occurred mainly in a broad valley of low topographic relief where coal seams terminated towards the east and west of the property. This thinning or absence of coal seams towards the east and west is due to a gentle rising of the pre-Karoo relief. Coal Resources in the No.2 and No.4U Seams within the Khutala mining right area is contracted to Eskom and mined coal is delivered raw to Kendal Power Station.The No.1 and No.2A Seams are either absent or only locally developed with restricted extents across the area due to elevation differences in the palaeo-floor which consists of either basement felsite or Dwyka Formation.Two prominent hilltops within the Khutala boundary represent major felsite palaeo-high ridges that truncated the coal measures during deposition. These no-coal areas are shown in Figure 5.44 and their effect on coal seams is illustrated in Figure 5.45. Seam dips can reach 15o on the flanks of palaeo-highs.The No.4L, No.3, No.2A and No.1 Seams are not economically significant. These seams are either too thin, inconsistently developed, or of too poor quality to be considered.In general, the coal-bearing strata are flat lying with little structural disturbance to the coal seams. However, a major graben structure bisects the Khutala property striking northeast-southwest and effectively divides the property into distinct northern and southern areas, as shown in Figure 5.44. This structural feature comprises a down faulted block with throws up to 16 m and is on average 120 m wide.A number of identified dolerite dykes transect the property and have led to coal devolatilisation in immediate proximity to the dykes. The dykes are generally less than 2 m in thickness, are near vertical and cause fracturing and deeper than normal weathering along their contacts. The dykes do not pose a material issue to mining.Intra-seam partings comprised of sandstone, mudstone and siltstone are prevalent in the No.2 Seam south of the graben, and mainly south of the current No.2 underground workings. These discontinuous layers and lenses occur at different heights within the seam and are difficult to correlate. Argillaceous parting material is present mainly towards the top half of the seam with the sandstone parting concentrated near the bottom of the No.2 Seam. The sandstone lenses vary in size and shape and are difficult to predict. These hard lenses can be as small as 100 m2 and present cutting problems for Continuous Miner sections. The thickness of these lenses varies from centimetres up to 2.8 m.Intra-seam parting within the No.4U Seam consists mainly of argillaceous material which poses less of a problem for mining operations.The No.5 Seam is consistently developed across Khutala area, and where absent is mainly due to weathering effects and to a lesser extent termination against palaeo-ridges. This good quality bright-banded coal with an average seam thickness of 1.95 m and is not dedicated to Eskom.The depth of cover above the seams generally increases to the south of Khutala. The depth to the roof of the No.4U Seam is approximately 100 m along the southern edge of the property while the depth to the No.2 Seam is approximately 130 m and is approximately 87 m for the No.5 Seam.The parting thickness between the two top seams is fairly constant while the thickness between the No.4U and No.2 Seams increases from approximately 10 m in the north to 20 m in the south.
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