Typically, five bituminous coal seams are recognised and are numbered from No.1 Seam at the base to No.5 Seam at the top of the coal-bearing sequence. The coal seams are generally flat to gently dipping and may be subject to floor rolls in places depending on the nature of underlying basement geology. Major seams, particularly No.4 Seam and No.2 Seam, usually split into “upper” and “lower” components and vary in their economic importance across the different operations and development assets.

Igneous intrusions in the form of dolerite dykes and sills are common and affect the coal seams to varying extents depending on locality. Where sills transgress coal seams, the strata overlying the sill is uplifted in elevation by an amount approximately equivalent to the thickness of the sill, resulting in some complex structural configurations.

The Khutala operation is bisected by a major east-west striking graben structure. Elsewhere, faulting is generally uncommon with throws usually less than 3 m. These faults are usually associated with dolerite sill transgressions and with the flanks of basement palaeo-high features.

SAEC consists of the Khutala colliery (Khutala), an underground bord and pillar operation; the Klipspruit colliery (Klipspruit), a single dragline, multi seam open-cut mine that is combined with a truck and shovel mini pit; the Wolvekrans Middelburg Complex (WMC). The WMC consists of the Ifalethu colliery and Wolvekrans colliery, which are open-cut mines with a number of active pits, and are mined using draglines combined with truck and shovel operations.

Khutala
The mine is predominantly an underground bord and pillar mining operation.

The underground mine is accessed by a large diameter vertical shaft for men and materials and there is an access decline which is used to transport the coal on a conveyor from underground to the surface stockpiles. In total there are currently 12 working areas (known as sections), with eight sections in the No.2 Seam and four sections in the No.4 Seam. The current underground mining method is to use modern mechanised continuous miners in all working sections. Both the No.2 and No.4 Seams are mined using continuous miners, mechanised roof bolters, electric shuttle cars and feeder breakers. The broken coal is loaded onto a network of conveyor belts, which transport the coal to surface.

Each continuous miner section comprises nine roadways; seven of these are used as intake airways and the remaining two as return airways. In plan view, this creates chequerboard pattern of ‘bords’ (comprising headways and cut- ........

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