The Soutpansberg-region’s future looks black - coal black, that is, as mining companies continue their onslaught on the area's rich coal fields.

In August of last year, it became known that yet another coal mining company, other than Coal of Africa Limited (CoAL), is showing interest in the Limpopo Valley’s coal fields. Universal Coal, an emerging thermal coal-production and -development company, earmarked thousands of hectares for exploration drilling.

Universal has two projects, namely Berenice and Somerville. The Berenice coking coal project is situated 90km southwest of Musina, close to CoAL’s Vele mine and Mapungubwe World Heritage Site.  Somerville, on the other hand, is located near the northern border of Botswana, stretching over six farms. Some of these farms are situated in the Vhembe Game Reserve.

On 10 August, Universal announced in their Cash Flow Report that an environmental risk assessment, geotechnical study and geohydrological survey have been commissioned. According to this report, drilling as part of a pre-feasibility study is currently underway.

The report further indicates that the Berenice project has 1.3 billion tonnes in coal-deposit resources. Universal said that their concept study had confirmed that the project “can support a 10 million tonne per annum open-cut operation in excess of 25 years.”

Somerville’s first exploration drilling is expected to start towards the last quarter of this year. According to Universal, they are looking at an excess of 1 billion tonnes of coking coal resource that is mainly stretched over three coal seams. If Universal is granted mining right licences, they have proposed open-cast mining to extract the coal.

At about the same time that Universal Coal made their announcement, Coal of India Limited (CIL) also announced their intention to acquire mines in the Limpopo Valley by forming a subsidiary company in South Africa.

Business LIVE reported last week that CIL announced in a bid document that they were busy signing an agreement with the Limpopo Province to “identify and develop coal mines.” CIL, which is state-owned, is one of the world’s largest coal miners.

According to Business LIVE,  the government of Limpopo approached CIL to set up a joint venture.  For this venture, CIL has earmarked 60 billion rupees (U$1.1 billion).  Where this proposed mine would be situated, could not be determined by the time of going to press. However, India is suffering from massive power outages, with some of its electricity plants that are idle as a result of fuel shortages.

Then there is the junior Canadian mining company, Diamcor Mining Incorporated, who said last Wednesday that it had started commissioning a processing plant at its Krone-Endora project, directly next to De Beers’ Venetia Mine. They announced their intention to mine diamonds here at the beginning of the year.

The purpose of this 200-tonne-per-hour modular processing plant, according to Diamcor, is to enable the company to move to trial mining. This will eventually lead to a production rate “of 10 000 carats within a year of starting the project”.

“Along with allowing for the testing and commissioning of the plant, these exercises are aimed at recovering an initial quantity of rough diamonds suitable for preliminary sorting by Diamcor and its strategic alliance partner Tiffany & Co, to assist the company to establish a new and current average dollar-per-carat estimate for the project's rough diamonds,” Diamcor CEO Dean Taylor said in a statement. Tiffany & Co is a famous American company that manufatures expensive jewellery with which Diamcor already has a long-term alliance.

To enable Diamcor to construct their process plant, they had to, among other things, clear about two hectares for construction and the areas for the fresh water, waste and settling dams. They also drilled 558 targets holes, covering an area of approximately 400 hectares, for the completion of the recommended infill and extended drilling. Diamcor expects production levels of between 120 00 and 240 000 carats per year.

With all this mining planned for the Soutpansberg and its unique Bushveld landscapes and tranquillity, it is no wonder conservationists are up in arms. Numerous organisations have joined the fight to try and stop or reduce the impact of mining in the area. Their fight is far from over, however,  as Government continues to approve mining rights.