Johannesburg, 29 July (Argus) — South African miner Coal of Africa (CoAL) has had its water use licence suspended at its Vele coking coal project in Limpopo province because of an appeal launched by domestic environmental groups.
The suspension, which followed a complaint by environmental groups to the country's water use authority yesterday, could further delay the start-up of the mine.
"The company is therefore unable to continue with activities at the Vele colliery that require water use," CoAL said today. South Africa's environment minister has the right to overturn the water tribunal's ruling to suspend the water licence. "The company is actively engaging with the minister to resolve this appeal process as soon as possible," the firm said.
Planning in relation to other construction and mining activities that did not require the use of water are continuing. CoAL only received environmental clearance from the South African government earlier this month to allow the restart of development work at Vele.
The construction phase at Vele is expected to be completed within six to nine months from the restart date and will ramp up production to an initial 1mn t/y. CoAL aims to eventually produce 5mn t/yr of coking coal at Vele, which has estimated reserves of 947mn t. It already has a deal with the Matola coal terminal in neighbouring Mozambique to be its primary route to export thermal coal to India.
The company had to suspended construction at Vele in August last year because of concerns that it would increase pollution near the Mapungubwe World Heritage site.
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