SA’s largest coking coal producer is designed to produce 800,000 tpy

In the Soutpansberg Coalfield, Limpopo Province of South Africa, construction of the Makhado steelmaking hard coking coal Project progressed as planned, with commissioning of the Coal Plant scheduled for December 2025.

During the quarter ended 30 June 2025, more project development milestones were successfully achieved, whilst maintaining the excellent safety, health, environmental and regulatory compliance performances that have become a recognizable feature of the venture to date. The colliery will be South Africa’s largest HCC producer, designed to produce 800,000 tonnes a year of HCC 64 Mid Vol, once steady-state operation for the foundation phase is reached. The life-of-mine (LOM) for the

Makhado Colliery is planned to be 28 years. Contiguous to the Makhado Project are the satellite Greater Soutpansberg Projects (GSP), that are all at granted Mining Right status, also endowed with steelmaking HCC potential, and scheduled to be the focus of mine planning, once the Makhado Project is commissioned.

Development of the Makhado Project is on schedule for the December 2025 Coal Plant commissioning and project expenditure remains within the budgeted estimates. The following key milestones were achieved for the quarter:

• Appointment of the principal mining contractor, JCI Mining Proprietary Limited (JCI): – JCI, a South African-based specialist surface mining contractor, was formally awarded a 5-year duration contract to undertake contract mining for the Makhado Project. JCI’s site establishment is already underway with mining of the East Pit boxcut scheduled to build up during the coming quarter. JCI will mobilise the mining fleet, a 200-strong workforce and the management and supervision to initially target the mining of 2Mtpa of ROM coal by conventional load and haul, using backhoe-configured excavators and a fleet of articulated dump trucks.
• Detailed design of the Coal Plant completed and equipment procurement at factory acceptance testing stage for critical equipment. With the detailed design work for the Coal Plant now completed, the electrical and instrumentation design workstream is now in progress.
• Civil construction, which commenced last quarter, is well advanced for the majority of the Coal Plant work packages, structural steel fabrication has started, platework orders placed and equipment procurement is far enough progressed that the first factory acceptance testing, for vibrating screens, mineral sizers and the feeder breaker have been arranged. The CHPP will process ROM coal to produce a primary product of HCC 64 Mid Vol and a secondary product of 5,500kcal API4 thermal coal (TC). Work has also started on planning the expansion strategy once the foundation phase is commissioned.
• Outlook

Construction work and operational readiness activities are ongoing, with open pit mining activities set to commence in earnest during the coming quarter.