Maize field to mine in nine months

摘要

It all started in a maize field outside the South African town of Delmas. In May last year there was no suggestion that within nine months or so there would be an operational mine there, harvesting the thick beds of coal that lie just below surface. Geologist Jaco Malan had, years before, pegged the ground for what was to become the Kangala coal mine for Australian-listed Universal Coal plc. Chief executive officer Tony Weber, Malan and a handful of others recognised the potential of Kangala and other nearby assets and set themselves the task of bringing it all to fruition. The company has now done this, turning the junior explorer into the newest junior producer on the Witbank coalfield east of Johannesburg in Mpuma-langa Province.