BLG Mining · Project
Natal Anthracite Mine.
Opencast strip mining at Vryheid in KwaZulu-Natal, producing 30,000 tonnes of ROM a month and washing it to a saleable anthracite on site.
All mines ↗The brief
A thin seam, mined properly.
Natal is a wholly owned BLG Mining asset at Vryheid, working an anthracite seam averaging two metres by opencast strip mining. Thin seams punish sloppy operators: the margin lives in how accurately you take the coal and how little dilution you carry into the wash.
That is a survey and grade-control problem before it is a mining one, which is why our surveyors and geologists sit on site rather than visiting. ROM is crushed, screened and washed through dense-media separation to a saleable product at 65% yield.
The discipline pays twice. Cleaner coal into the wash lifts yield, and the strips behind the face are reshaped, topsoiled and re-vegetated as mining advances, so the open footprint stays small and the closure plan stays real.
The numbers
Natal, on paper.
Strip mined and washed
Volumes are surveyed monthly and reconciled against the wash plant before anything is certified.
- Ownership
- 100% BLG Mining
- Location
- Vryheid, KwaZulu-Natal
- Commodity
- Washed anthracite
- Mining Method
- Opencast strip mining
- Production
- 30,000 T ROM / month
- Processing
- Crushing, screening & DMS wash
- Recovery
- 65%
- Equipment
- Doosan ADTs & excavators
- Seam Height
- 2 m average
The chain
From seam to stockpile.
Strip & Expose
Overburden stripped in sequence, with rehabilitation following the advancing face rather than waiting for closure.
Take the Coal
Selective mining of a two-metre seam, surveyed monthly, cutting dilution before it reaches the plant.
Crush & Screen
Sizing the ROM to the fractions the wash and the market want.
DMS Wash
Dense-media separation to a saleable washed anthracite at 65% yield.
Also in production
The other side of the portfolio.
Copper in the Kunene Region of Namibia: 25,000 tonnes of ROM a month, leached and electrowon to cathode on site.
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