Growth Mode

Coal junior targets near-threefold output increase to 10Mt/y in two years.

- Ilan Solomons

Junior coal mining company Canyon Coal is producing 300 000 t/m of run-of-mine (RoM), which equates to 3.6-million tons of coal a year across all its operations. However, the company is aiming to increase this to ten-million tons a year over the next two years, thereby making it a midtier coal miner.

Canyon executive chairperson Vuslat Bayoglu says the company is producing 180 000 t/m, or two-million tons a year, of coal for the export market, with the balance being supplied to local clients such as sugar and paper mills. The company currently has no offtake contracts in place with State-owned power utility Eskom.

He states that the company – which currently has three mines in operation – will be able to grow its production at its existing operations and bring new projects on stream, largely owing to its experienced and dedicated management team.

The company’s Hakhano and Singani collieries, in Middelburg, and its Phalanndwa colliery, in Delmas, all in Mpumalanga, produce bituminous coal. The three mines employ 634 people, including contractors.

Bayoglu, along with Hakhano and Singani GM Guy Thompson and Canyon group plant manager Jacque Diener, gave Mining Weekly an exclusive tour of Canyon’s mines last month, where they provided a status update and shared the company’s vision for the future.