COAL PROJECT FIRES MC MINING AHEAD

MC MINING said yesterday that it had a positive year to the end of June, with the integration of the cash generative Uitkomst Colliery and sale of Mooiplaats, while further progress was made on developing its flagship Makhado hard coking coal project. Chief executive David Brown said the company had transitioned into a producer of premium quality coal, the first step to becoming a self-sufficient mid-tier, multi-product mining group. He said the sale of the non-core Mooiplaats Colliery would yield an estimated annual operational cost savings of $1.4 million (R19.95m) and the aggregate sale proceeds of $12.9m would be used to further develop the Makhado project. “MC Mining continues its endeavours to unlock near-term shareholder value from the Makhado Project and as a result, completed a revised development plan yielding similar returns to the original design, but reducing capital requirements, the construction period and annual production, but with an extended lifeof-mine,” Brown said. “Makhado has all of the requisite regulatory approvals to commence mining and the company continues its efforts to secure access to two key properties for the completion of confirmatory geotechnical drilling.” He said access had been delayed as the properties were subject to a legislated land claims process and the company had commenced the procedure to secure access in terms of its mining right. The application would continue in parallel with hard-coking and thermal coal off-take negotiations which were at an advanced stage. | African News Agency (ANA)