Water licence for Vele Colliery

AUSTRALIAN junior coal producer MC Mining said yesterday that the Department of Water and Sanitation had granted it an integrated water use licence for Vele Colliery’s stream diversion and associated infrastructural activities in Limpopo. The approval completes the full regulatory suite of authorisations required for Vele Colliery, which remained on care and maintenance throughout the third quarter of 2017. “This decision is a confirmation of the government’s support of the company’s co-existence model which facilitates the co-existence of mining, agriculture and heritage land uses in line with the historic biodiversity offset agreement between the department of environmental affairs, the South African National Parks and MCM,” MC Mining chief executive David Brown said. MC Mining said the final decision on whether to proceed with the plant modification project would be placed before the company’s board and would include an assessment of long term pricing, as well as logistics considerations.