The Project is located centrally on the southern boundary of the Witbank Coalfield.

All of the known coal deposits in South Africa are hosted in sedimentary rocks of the Karoo Basin, a large retro-foreland basin which developed on the Kaapvaal Craton and filled between the Late Carboniferous and Middle Jurassic periods.

The seams are relatively flat lying and due to the increase in surface elevation, there is an increased depth to the top of the seams towards the east of the Project Area and towards the west in the Middeldrift area. No major faults or dolerites have been identified. However, a plot of the S1A floor elevation indicates a possible southeast to northwest trending fault resulting in a basement high. This fault lies close to the boundary between the farms Roodekop and Diepspruit in the western part of the Project Area. The fault has downthrown the seams to the south by ~ 10 m and most likely cuts off the S1A towards the northeast.

Roodekop is located centrally and close to the southern extent of the Witbank Coalfield. The boundaries between the individual coalfields are based largely on historical and geographic considerations and not necessarily on real geological differences.

The NCC Project is underlain by the sandstone, shale, and coal of the Ecca Group and tillite of the Dwyka Group. The underlying rock is pre-Karoo basement and consists predominantly of rhyolites and interbedded mudstone and sandstone of the Rooib ........

Mining method - Truck and shovel, Room and pillar.

Infrastructure of open deposits
The following infrastructure is required for the organization of open-pit mining operations:
- ramps to the pit,
- Motor roads,
- Dumps of the upper layer of soil, soft overburden and hard overburden (including intermediate rock),
- landfill site.

ROM production will start at the Roodekop opencast mining the S2U, S2L, S1, and S1A. The opencast production will be from a typical truck and shovel strip mining operation. The mining operation will begin with the creation of the box cut. The topsoil, soft overburden, and hard overburden from the box cut will be placed on three different areas prepared for these waste dumps. On completion of the box cut, mining will continue on a roll-over basis placing the next strips overburden back into the previous strip.

The box cut for the Middeldrift area will be created during Year 12, when the last coal is mined at Roodekop. This will allow production to continue uninterrupted when operations are transferred to Middeldrift.

Production from the Diepspruit underground mine, mining the S1 only, will commence shortly after the opencast production starts. The mining method will be bord and pillar mining utilising continuous miners and electric shuttle cars. For the first 11 years, underground production will be from two continuous miner production sections in the S1 only. From Year 12, additiona ........

The primary crushing facility at the ROM pit will consist of underground feeders that will crush the rum coal to -250mm before loading it onto vehicles.

The raw coal, product, and discard handling for all three modules will include the following:
- Primary crushing at the opencast ROM stockpile area to reduce the opencast ROM coal to (minus) – 250 mm;
- Haul truck route from opencast and underground ROM coal stockpiles to the raw coal stockpiles at the CHPP;
- Raw coal stockpile with above ground reclaim tunnel and vibrating feeders;
- A vibrating scalping screen, sizing at 50 mm, that will relieve the load on the secondary crushers:
* The screen undersize will flow directly onto the respective plant feed bin conveyors. The screen oversize will be reduced in size by the respective mineral sizers;
* The crushed material will report onto the respective plant feed bin conveyors for the Eskom and metallurgical coal modules.
- Secondary crusher feed conveyors for the – 250 mm + 50 mm raw coal;
- Secondary crushing, utilising a mineral sizer, to reduce the top size from 250 mm to 50 mm;
- A 40- and 80-ton plant feed surge bin for the Export and Metallurgical plant modules;
- Plant feed conveyors;
- Eskom cyclone and spiral product collecting conveyor;
- Low Phos cyclone and spiral product collecting conveyor;
- Primary product radial stacker to discharge onto a kidney-shaped stockpile;
- Discard collecting conveyor;
- Discard bin for loading discard into trucks.

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