Belfast mine is on the far eastern edge of the Witbank coalfield. The coalfield extends about 190km east-west between the towns of Springs and Belfast, and about 60km in a north-south direction between the towns of Middelburg and Ermelo.

The Witbank coalfield has up to five coal seams in the middle Ecca group sediments of the Karoo supergroup. The Karoo sequence in the area is represented by the Dwyka formation and the middle Ecca with little or no lower Ecca development. The middle Ecca sequence of coal horizons, interbedded with sediments, is highly truncated due to erosion with only very minor areas where the full sequence is developed.

Main seams: S2, S3 and S4 are exploited where economical.

Locally, mainly three seams are targeted (S2, S3 and S4). S5 was intersected in only a few drill holes in the northern part of the project area. S2, the most prevalent seam, is consistently developed, except in areas where it has been eroded. It has an average thickness of 2.6m and gently dips to the south. S3 and S4 are sporadically developed due to erosion and both have an average thickness of 1.0m.

Due to the mine’s proximity to the northern edge of the Witbank basin, the primary control of coal development is the current weathering surface. The deposit is divided by a perennial stream, into two resource blocks under two distinct spurs in the surface topography. There is no indication of pertinent faulting from the drill hole information ........

Currently, mining takes place from five open pits using the doze-over, truck-and-shovel hybrid mining method. The LoM identifies 10 opencast pits, four or five of which will operate concurrently. There are prospects for additional opencast opportunities north of the existing operations.

The mine produced first coal in April 2019 from pit 5. In 2019 it also opened two box cuts on pit 1 and pit 7, ramping up production in 2020. In 2020 pit 2 was opened, followed by pit 4B box cut in 2021 and pit 4 box cut in 2022. Except for pit 4, the other opencast pits are in steady state.

In 2022 Belfast demonstrated its implementation of the early value coal strategy by opening its milestone fifth opencast pit. Belfast was on track in the first part of the year to reach an all-time high record production. However, challenges relating to the mining business partner in the second part of the year negatively impacted production. The challenges are currently being addressed. The technical team is focused to optimise the full area within the mining right as outlined in the early value coal strategy and applicable studies are progressing well with the conclusion of the exploration campaign and exploitation plan.

Belfast has an approved mining right that covers 5 818ha.

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