The controversial mining company Coal of Africa Limited (CoAL) has agreed to buy various mining assets in the Soutpansberg basin from Rio Tinto.

Revealing this in a statement on Monday, CoAL said that they had agreed to buy the Chapudi coal project and related exploration properties from joint venture companies held by Rio Tinto Minerals Development Limited and Kwezi Mining (Proprietary) Limited.

The Chapudi project will add about one billion tons to CoAL’s 947-million ton resource in the Soutpansberg coal basin. It is also adjacent to CoAL’s Makhado coal project, north of the Soutpansberg.

CoAL, who recently unleashed a media furore about its controversial Vele-project close to the Mapungubwe World Heritage site, have learnt big lessons.

According to John Wallington, CoAL’s chief executive officer, they will apply these lessons to the Makhado, Chapudi and other properties they will acquire in the deal with Rio Tinto.

“The acquisition of the Chapudi coal project and the related exploration properties bolsters our existing coking coal projects, with the Chapudi coal project alone doubling our Makhado project’s 947Mt resource, thereby cementing CoAL’s position as the dominant landholder in one of South Africa’s most prospective coal basins,” said Wallington.

Wallington added that the project comes at “a critical time” for CoAL “ with the results from the Makhado project definitive feasibility study due in early 2011.” He expressed the hope that the agreement will strengthen their application for a New Order Mining Rights for the Makhado Project.

In addition to the Chapudi project, all of the farms comprising the related exploration properties are contiguous to one or more of CoAL’s existing Voorburg, Jutland, Mt Stuart and Makhado coal projects.

After the announcement, the Department of Mineral Resources said that, with a properly completed application, it should take six months to process a mining right, instead of a year. Thereafter, it will take about 18 months to construct the first phase of the Makhado project.

CoAL also plans to to develop the coking coal properties in the hope to seek either a domestic or export market for the thermal coal. According to Wallington, there is a strong posibility for the development of an Independent Power Produce project in the region, bolstering the domestic market together with international markets being developed, given the ready access to the export market through the Maputo logistics corridor.