[miningmx.com] – KEATON Energy, the thermal coal and anthracite
production company, said it was seeking to consolidate anthracite production in South
Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province in an effort to boost production to 5 million
tonnes/year (Mtpa).
Current run-of-mine production stands at 2.7Mtpa from two operations: the
Vanggatfontein mine in Mpumalanga province, and the recently acquired Vaalkrantz
anthracite colliery in KwaZulu-Natal.
“The board has given us a target that is in excess of the current pipeline. So we are
actively seeking additional projects,’ said Paul Miller, MD of Keaton Energy. The
company would consider greenfields projects in the Mpumalanga “heartland’, but the
best available prospects were more likely buying coal or coal mining operations in
KwaZulu-Natal, he said.
Miller was speaking at the company’s full-year results ended March, in which the
company posted established itself as a profitable coal miner with headline earnings of
25 cents/share compared to 10c/share in the 2011 financial year.
Shares in Keaton Energy were flat at R3.05/share and well off the heights of several
years ago, when the company was still an exploration play, of above R12/share.
The interest in the anthracite or metallurgical coal industry is two-fold: from a
marketing point of view, demand for anthracite has a substitute for more expensive
coking coal was increasing. Secondly, there were a number of small anthracite
producers in the Vaalkrantz region that didn’t have its wash plant, or its siding and
blending facilities.
David Slater, chairman of Keaton Energy, said that while the company had a supply
contract with Eskom, the margins in anthracite – some of which was exported to
Brazil where metal alloys companies consumed it – were better.
