The topography of the Klipspruit area is generally flat to gently sloping, at a mean elevation of approximately 1,600 m. The area drains towards the north. The unconsolidated material that overlies the solid sediments consists of soil, sand, laterite and clay. The thickness of this unconsolidated overburden averages 6 m, but varies depending on the depth of weathering.

Exploration boreholes target the full coal-bearing sequence and terminate in Dwyka Tillite. The sedimentary strata comprises mainly white, fine- to coarse-grained sandstone layers with alternating shale and shaly sandstones with bioturbated layers in places. The No.2 and No.4L Seams are separated by sandy shales grading into medium-grained sandstone towards the top. Coarse grained, hard sandstone layers are present immediately above the No.4L Seam.

Coal seams preserved in the Klipspruit area include No.5, No.4U, No.4L, No.3, No.2 and No.1 Seams. As a result of the topographic surface sloping to the north, all of the coal seams except for No.2 and No.1 Seams have been affected by weathering. This is especially true of the No.5 Seam, which is almost totally lost to erosion north of the Ogies Dyke.

A dolerite dyke has been identified in the Bankfontein area, which has affected Coal Resources mainly in the No.4U Seam. This was the result of deep weathering adjacent to the dyke.

The Ogies Dyke is a well-known post-Karoo intrusive structure that extends for some 70 km in a ........

Opencast mining commenced at Klipspruit in 2009, with the No.4L, No.2 and No.1 Seams being the main coal seams mined since that time. The No.4U Seam is separated from the No.4L Seam by a coarse-grained sandstone and mudstone parting. No.4 Seam is of poor inherent quality and is only suitable for the domestic power station market.

The Klipspruit Mine is a single dragline, multi-seam opencast operation (known as Main Pit) combined with a truck shovel mini pit operation (Bankfontein North). The dragline method employed ranges from a single bench to double bench method. Opencast mining uses a series of strips and cuts over a wide area, where the surface is relatively flat and the coal seams comparatively shallow. The stripcut initially started as a boxcut, which was then advanced to a 3 km strip cut with 40 m wide ramps being moved at around 50 m strip cuts and placed as space became available in the low wall.

Coal mining and loading is carried out simultaneously with the overburden removal. As the pit advances, the overburden dumps are rolled back into the pit, to fill the mined out voids, as part of the continuous rehabilitation process.

The southern boundary of the main pit hosts Ogies Dyke, a dolerite intrusive body, which has an approximate 100 m offset delineating the pit outline.

The Main Pit has a strike length of approximately 3 km and an average strip ratio of between 2.3 and 3.2 bcm/t ROM over the next six years. The target ........

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