JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South African coal miner Keaton Energy’s group production grew strongly during the second quarter of the 2014 financial year, with its Vanggatfontein colliery delivering 616 668 t of washed 2-seam and 4-seam thermal coal to Eskom.

This was a 17% increase over the previous quarter’s record of 526 034 t, and brought first-half production to 1.14-million tons, a 55% increase compared with the 770 000 t produced during the first half of the previous financial year.

“We continued our trend of record production and cash generation during the second quarter of the 2014 financial year. Not only has Vanggatfontein settled into a steady- state production unit but secondary cash generating activities performed strongly as we optimised the mine,” Keaton Energy CEO Mandi Glad commented.

Vanggatfontein’s 5-seam metallurgical coal sales into the domestic market increased by 18% quarter-on-quarter to 29 908 t, from 25 246 t. The colliery delivered a total of 55 154 t of 5-seam coal to the domestic market during the first half of the current financial year, a 60% increase compared with 34 389 t in the previous corresponding period.

The colliery further washed 67 714 t of third-party coal during the quarter ended September, a 13% decrease from that washed during the second quarter, as a result of a reduction in spare washing capacity.

However, 49% more third-party coal was washed during the first half of this year, as opposed to that washed during the first half of last year.

Discard and slurry sales from Vanggatfontein totalled 295 317 t for the period, compared with 260 646 t for the previous quarter, an increase of 13%, while a total of 555 963 t of discard and slurry was sold during the first half of this year, an increase of 98% from the 281 413 t sold during the previous half year.

Keaton Energy further pointed out that Pit 4 at Vanggatfontein was opened during the second quarter, which would allow for even greater flexibility and optimisation of future mining activities.

Meanwhile, production at Keaton’s Vaalkrantz colliery continued to be affected by challenging geological conditions and labour disruptions.

The colliery sold 77 691 t of anthracite to domestic and export customers during the quarter, up 1.6% over the previous quarter’s 76 454 t. Vaalkrantz sold 154 145 t of anthracite for the first half of this year, compared with 175 797 t for the previous half-year, a decrease of 12%.

“Vaalkrantz continues to be a difficult operation but excellent safety and production management is overcoming the challenges there,” Glad said.

Keaton Energy would announce its half-year results mid-November.