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South Africa

Greenside Mine

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Greenside Mine

Location: 10 km SW from Emalahleni, South Africa

Address:

Groenfontein 331 Js
Private Bag x7275
Emalahleni
South Africa
1035

Contacts:

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Categories

Summary

Mine TypeUnderground
StatusActive
Commodities
  • Coal (thermal)
Mining Method
  • Bord-and-pillar
  • Continuous
Production Start... Lock
Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotGreenside Colliery is part of the South African Coal Estate (SACE) complex, which also includes Khwezela North (formerly Landau) and Khwezela South (formerly Kleinkopje).

Greenside is an underground coal mine operating four sections — one prime and three conventional — mining the No. 4 Seam.

The colliery features a Mineral Residue Deposit (MRD), a Coal Handling and Preparation Plant (CHPP) complex, and two inclined shafts providing access to the underground workings.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Thungela Resources Limited 90 % Indirect
Greenside Colliery is a part of Thungela’s South Africa Coal Operations.

Thungela Resources Limited holds 90% of the shares in SACO. The Sisonke Employee Empowerment Scheme and the Nkulo Community Partnership Trust, which are controlled by the Group, hold 10% collectively of the shares in SACO.

Thungela Operations Proprietary Limited directly owns 100% of SACO.

Contractors

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SourceSource

Deposit type

  • Sedimentary

Summary:

The Greenside Colliery is located in the Witbank Coalfield where five coal seams are present. These consist of, from the bottom upwards, the No 1 Seam sequentially to the No 5 Seam at the top, with inter-seam partings consisting of mainly shale or siltstone and sandstone, with thicknesses ranging between 1.5m and 23m. The No 4 Seam and the re-processing MRD are currently contributing to the colliery’s export product.

Underlying the coal sequence of the Vryheid Formation are glacial deposits of the Dwyka Group, which accumulated on the erosional pre-Karoo basement surface. The distribution of the lower seams (No 1 and No 2 Seams) is controlled by the underlying palaeotopography while that of the uppermost No 5 Seam is controlled by the level of the present-day erosion. The seams are generally flat lying and gently undulating.

The colliery is sub-divided into two distinct domains, by a major northwest, southeast trending normal fault system with a measured maximum throw of 30m in the southeast. The throw gradually decreases to an approximately 1m throw towards the northwest. Mining has been constrained by the fault system, with development from the east and west stopping on approaching the fault zone.

Several dolerite dykes have been identified by drilling and mining, but the impact on mining is limited to occasional cases of poor ground conditions experienced during mining.

Surface material at Greenside consists of weathering products of the sandstones, siltstones and mudstones of the Vryheid Formation, with isolated patches of dolerite in the southwestern part of the GAR. The top layer consists of reddish-brown sandy soil, with clayey-sandy subsoil below.

Weathering generally does not extend deeper than approximately 12 m at Greenside, except where adjacent to dolerite dykes and close to surface water bodies. In these instances, weathering may reach up to 17 m below the surface. Weathering negatively affects the mineable Coal Resource, but rarely has an impact of the physical mining operation in terms of mining method and design.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Heavy Mobile Equipment

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Milling equipment has not been reported.

Processing

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Commodity Production

CommodityUnits2024202320222021202020192018201720162015
Coal (thermal) Mt  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe4.84.53.83.93.9
All production numbers are expressed as clean coal.

Operational metrics

Metrics20242023202220212020201920182017
Coal tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe4,974 kt5,057 kt4,870 kt

Production Costs

CommodityUnits20242023202220212020201920182017
Cash costs (sold) Coal (thermal) ZAR  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Cash costs Coal (thermal) ZAR 573 / t   567 / t   617 / t  
Total cash costs (sold) Coal (thermal) ZAR  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe

Mine Financials

Units20242023202220212020201920182017
Capital expenditures M ZAR  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Revenue M ZAR  ....  Subscribe 2,577   2,874   2,891  

Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required May 30, 2025
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 31, 2020
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required May 30, 2025
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required May 30, 2025

Workforce

EmployeesContractorsTotal WorkforceYear
...... Subscription required 2024
...... Subscription required 2023
...... Subscription required 2022
...... Subscription required 2021
...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required 2020
...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required 2019
...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required 2018
...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required 2017

Aerial view:

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