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• 2016 TOP PERFORMERS | UNIVERSAL COAL UNIVERSAL COAL’S NCC September 2016 represents a major milestone achievement for ASX-listed coal junior Universal Coal which saw the company move its 49% owned second mining operation – New Clydesdale Colliery (NCC) – into production. And while this has successfully enabled the company to fulfil its strategy of becoming a multi-mine coal producer for the domestic and export market, NCC is destined to grow quite substantially in the near-term future and nearly double the company’s mining production profile in 2017. LAURA CORNISH visited the mine to learn more about what lies in store for it. IN SHORT Situated in the Kriel district about 35 km outside of eMalahleni, the NCC operation’s opencast Roodekop mine is on the brink of development. T he acquisition of NCC from coal major Exxaro in 2014 has started bearing fruit for Universal Coal – the coal handling and preparation plant (CHPP) has been largely recommissioned and is successfully washing and screening coal from Diepspruit underground coal mine which was included as part of the A$18.05 million acquisition. Although the intention was originally focused on bringing Universal Coal’s NCC plant-adjacent Roodekop deposit into production first, the lengthy period necessary to acquire a coal supply agreement (CSA) with Eskom saw the 28 MINING REVIEW AFRICA | company change direction. Thanks to a small and flexible management structure, the decision to start mining at the underground operation – already developed by Exxaro – was quick and easy. NCC returns to service Once the coal is delivered by truck from the now operational and nearby underground Diepspruit mine, it is screened and washed in two of three separate plant modules at the NCC CHPP. NCC general manager Charles Makgala explains that the plant, one of the oldest in the country, was first established as a crushing and screening operation in the 1950s after which it was expanded in modules. Today the three modules include a 90 tph HMS (heavy media separation) module which is due to be refurbished imminently, a 200 tph PCI (pulverised coal injection) which is used to wash the Diespruit coal and a 300 tph Module B operational plant which will be used to process the Roodekop opencast DECEMBER 2016