The Elandspruit, Khanyisa, Vanggatfontein and Moabsvelden Collieries are located within the Witbank Coalfield. The northern extent of the Coalfield is defined by the limit of coal-bearing sediments of the Vryheid Formation which abut against pre-Karoo basement rocks of the Transvaal Sequence, the Waterberg Group and Bushveld Complex. The southern limit of the central sector of the Coalfield is marked by a series of Bushveld Complex inliers known as the Smithfield Ridge while in the east and west sectors, the boundary between the Witbank Coalfield and the Highveld Coalfield to the south is somewhat arbitrary.

The five major coal seams of the coalfield are contained within a stratigraphic interval averaging approximately 70m in thickness. The seams are numbered, from the base upwards and include the No. 1 Coal Seam, the No. 2 Coal Seam (split into the No. 2 Lower Coal Seam and No. 2 Upper Coal Seam), the No. 3 Coal Seam, the No. 4 Coal Seam (split into the No. 4 Lower Coal Seam and No. 4 Upper Coal Seam) and the uppermost No. 5 Coal Seam.

The No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 Coal Seams are present at Elandspruit.

No. 1 Coal Seam
The No. 1 Coal Seam increases in thickness from less than 1 m along the eastern boundary where the seam pinches out, to over 4m in the western sector. In the opencast area, the seam averages 4 m in thickness whereas in the underground area in averages 2.9 m. The depth to roof of the No. 1 Coal Seam ranges from less th ........

Currently, all seams present within the delineated opencast areas are scheduled for mining, namely the No. 4 Lower Coal Seam, No. 3 Coal Seam, No. 2 Upper and Lower Coal Seams and the No. 1 Coal Seam. Within the underground mining area, only the No. 1 Coal Seam is targeted for mining. As such, all other seams have been excluded from the UG estimations.

Coal reserves for Elandspruit are based on the current mining strategy with regard to both opencast and underground operations. Opencast operations are based on the standard strip mining and rollover methodology, with underground being based on standard bord and pillar methodology with no secondary extraction.

During FY22, Elandspruit generated ROM from opencast amounting to 2.44mt and 0.08mt from the underground operations which commenced again in August 2021 (previous underground operations ceased in August 2018).

The ROM will be loaded and hauled to the designated area adjacent to the Crush & Screen plant from where the coal will be initially fed to the crushing and screening plant. The plant is designed to process 200 tonnes ROM (>0-300mm) per hour from the Mine, which is first fed into the plant’s crusher (primary) and screening section, which crushes and screens out the material to a 0-90mm range. From there it is screened to a 30-60mm product, creating nuts. All > 60 – 90mm particles go through a secondary crusher that crushes the material and the screening section removes 0-30mm particles of which the 9-30mm particles are called peas and the 0-8/9mm duff. The plant will produce nuts, duff and peas. The plant covers a footprint of 82 meters in length by 50 meters in width. From an environmental point of view the plant has minimal impact. It is also situated within the Pollution Control Dam section of the Mine.

Elandspruit has a processing facility some 18km east from the mine, with a monthly capacity of 210 000 feed tons. ROM coal is trucked from the mine and processed at this processing facility from where the product is again trucked to clients. Elandspruit is providing thermal coal to Eskom and to Inland clients.

The processing facility is the primary coal processing facility for the Elandspruit Mine, but can be utilised for the upgrading of ROM in the vicinity if needed.

Elandspruit processing plant (Wescoal processing plant)
The Dense Medium Separation (DMS) Plant will be installed to treat the peas and duff generated from the crushing and screening plant. The plant is designed with two cyclone sections. The first section (cyclone) treats the Duff and Peas (0- 30mm). The second section (cyclone) treats the fines material (0-3mm) (slurry), normally 10% of the plant feed. The major benefit of this design is that from an environmental point of view there is basi ........