Kleinkopje Colliery is a multi-product opencast mine situated 10 km south-west of Witbank in the Mpumalanga Province. Five main seams that are numbered in order of deposition from No.1 seam to No. 5 seam are present at Kleinkopje Colliery, this being typical of the Witbank Coalfield1.

The coal-seams are separated by sediments of shale, sandstone and siltstone. The coal reserves of the mine are predominantly found in the No. 1, 2 and 4 seams1. There are limited reserves in the No. 2 Lower and No. 5 seam.

The in-pit floor is full of undulations and is also relatively confined and the distances trucks have to travel from the loading area to the tipping area are relatively long (greater than 10 km in certain instances). Five draglines are used at Kleinkopje Colliery for overburden removal.

Blasted coal is transported by trucks from the loading area inside the pit to the tipping area. There are currently three tips being utilized, with Tips A and B having a coal handling capacity of 1 500 tons per hour (t/h) and Tip C with a handling capacity of 1000 t/h. Tips A and B are suited only for bottom dump trucks whereas both rear dump trucks and bottom dump trucks can off load coal at Tip C. Tip C is the most recent of the three tips as it was commissioned only in 2002, whereas the other two tips have been operational since the inception of the mine.

The layout of Kleinkopje plant commences at the raw coal tipping area, where coal can be tipped either on the A, B or C tip. The tipped material is then sized down to 150 mm through primary crushing Bradford breaker. The oversize is then subjected to a jaw crusher that also reduces the material size to a top size of 150 mm.

The stockpiling is done in chevron pattern to allow proper and even blending of raw material. The bucket-wheel reclaimers are then utilized to reclaim raw coal from the stockpiles through the banana screens which classify coal for the drum plant and cyclone plant silos.

The Wemco drum section is divided into five modules, namely, module 3, 4A, 4B, 5A and 5B. The oversize material reports to Wemco drum plants from which separation according to gravity takes place. After separation, the product and discard material report to their respective drain and rinse screens where medium recovery takes place before the material is transported either to a product or discard silo.

Wemco drums present several advantages that make it a separator of choice over other dense medium washing baths. These include amongst others the following:
- A sharp separation can be obtained at various relative densities.
- High efficiencies are achievable with large amount of near gravity material.
- The operating density can be easily reached and controlled.
- A large range of particle size can be handled very efficiently.
- Changes in feed rate and quality can be treated with a high level of confidence.
- The drum can handle large quantities of feed per square metre per hour.