Exploration and development company Ikwezi Mining announced that it had been granted an integrated water use licence for its Ntendeka colliery, outside Newcastle, in KwaZulu-Natal.

The granting of the licence puts the regulatory framework in place to enable the company to complete construction of the water supply system to the colliery’s wash plant.

“The granting of the licence is an important milestone in bringing the Ntendeka colliery project into operation,” says Ikwezi Mining MD David Pile.

This type of licence is a requirement in South Africa to start mining activities.

Further, Pile states that the water for the Ntendeka colliery will be sourced from the old underground Ngagane colliery workings, which are about 6 km from the operation’s wash plant.

“We have designed the Ntendeka colliery using modern technologies to conserve, and recycle as much water as possible to reduce the impact on available water supplies in the area,” says Pile.

The water from the old Ngagane colliery workings will be processed through a dissolved air flotation plant to bring the water to industrial standard before use by the operation.

“A potable water treatment plant will also be built to supply the operation with its potable water requirement to further reduce water use. “Additional capital has also been spent on the coal wash plant through the inclusion of filter presses,” says Pile, adding that this will result in the discard from the wash plant being dry, which is not the case in the normal slurry dams used by most processing facilities.

In April 2012, the mine appointed mining contractor Stefanutti Stocks Mining Services (SSMS) as its opencast mining operator to conduct the opencast mining at the Ntendeka colliery.

SSMS provides a range of services in the fields of design and construction, as well as operations of tailings disposal and recovery facilities.

“Ikwezi considered a number of criteria in choosing its preferred contractor, including SSMS’s combined manage- ment experience, financial stability, capacity to meet production and cost targets and established record of pro- viding mining services to major mining houses, such as South Africa’s largest gold-mining company, AngloGold Ashanti, multilisted Harmony Gold, Assmang, a joint undertaking of African Rainbow Minerals and mining holding company Assore, Russia’s largest diversified mining and metals company OJSC MMC Norilsk, gold producer Gold Fields, and a unit of miner Anglo American, De Beers,” says Pile.

SSMS will operate within the criteria set out in Ikwezi’s social and labour plan, which seeks to promote employment and advance the social and economic welfare of local communities around the Newcastle project site, he says.

“Ikwezi Mining has a rail agreement with Transnet Freight Rail to provide the Ntendeka colliery with 1.5-million tons a year rail capacity to either the Port of Durban or Richards Bay. The company has also been offered port capacity at both Durban and the Navitrade facility, in Richards Bay, contracts it intends to finalise shortly.
“The remaining construction activities at the colliery, together with the com- mencement of mining, are dependent on the finalisation of the company’s finance facility, which is progressing well,” concludes Pile.