The 1st of June 2012 will herald an historic moment in the evolution of the Eastern Cape Coalfields as the Eastern Cape Premier Noxolo Kiviet ushers in the first in a series of major blasts signifying the commencement of production at the Elitheni Coal Mine.
Elitheni Coal (Pty) Ltd has proven over 200mt (million tonnes) of coal exist in the Eastern Cape, with a further 95% of the coal rights area still to be explored. Furthermore, Elitheni Coal has signed an initial offtake agreement with Trasteel International SA for the sale of its first 2 million tonnes of coal, to be exported through the Port of East London. The first vessel is scheduled to dock in November 2012 with this initial order being completed over a period of three years.
This will result in over 500 direct jobs being created in and around the mine in the next 12 months but with the mine ramp up, this will see increase to approximately 2 000 direct jobs over the next 5 years. Using an acceptable industry multiplier of 1:10, this therefore means there are 5 000 expected indirect jobs in the short term and up to 20 000 indirect jobs in the medium-term.
These jobs will be created in an area known as Emalahleni Local Municipality (ELM) in the Chris Hani District of the Eastern Cape. The ELM has 98% Unemployment rate.
This‘ground breaking’ ceremony will take place on Friday, 1 June 2012 from 15h00-20h00, with a viewing of the blast, to be followed with a cocktail dinner.
Elitheni Coal invites members of the media to be present for this historic event.
The blast will comprise:
- over 9 000 blast holes drilled
- blasting circa 10 000 square meters of ground
- removing circa 250 000 tonnes of overburden rock
- exposing over 25 000 tonnes of coal.
Details of the Event:
Date: Friday, 1 June 2012
Time: 15h00 to 20h00
Venue: Our Offices are at 3 Dunn Street, Indwe and the directions to the Mine are attached.
For further information and enquiries about this event, you can contact:
Mazizi Msutu
Director for Stakeholder Management and Sustainable Development
Cell: 078 803 5282
E-mail: mazizi.msutu@elitheni.co.za
