Heritage Cases

Arnot Colliery is the holder of the converted Mining Right (Reference No: MP 30/5/1/2/2/410 MR) located on farm Portion Braamspruit 465 JS, Portion of Arnot West 983 JS, A Portion of Portions RE 2, 3, 5 and 11 of Bosmanspruit, A Portion of Farm RE Bult en Dal 997 JS and a Portion of Portions RE 1, 2, 4 and 5 situated in the Mpumalanga Province. Arnot Colliery was constructed in the early 1970’s to supply a total 6,18 million run of mine tons of coal per annum to the Arnot Power Station, comprising, 1,98 million tons from an underground mine and 4,20 million tons from an opencast mine. The Mine exploited bituminous coal from two pits, namely Pit 1 and Pit 2 (West and East). Mining of the open cast pits ceased in 1992, followed by backfilling and rehabilitation. Arnot Colliery proposes to renew their existing Mining Right and mine seam 4 (S4L&S4UA), 2 seam and 1 seam situated on Braamspruit 465 JS, Arnot West 983 JS and Tweefontein Farms by means of open cast and underground mining methods. Opencast mining will include drilling and blasting of coal using hydraulic excavators and Articulated Dump Trucks (“ADT’s”) to transfer coal to a dedicated stockpile area. The underground plan includes the extraction of the deeper seams where the strip ratios increase to an uneconomical level applying bord and pillar mining methods. Due to the extent and nature of the activities associated with the proposed mining project, the Environmental Assessment Practitioner (“EAP”) has identified that a Scoping and Environmental Impact Assessment (“S&EIA”) process is required in terms of the NEMA EIA Regulations, GN R.982 dated 2014, as amended. In addition, a Water Use Licence Application will be undertaken for water uses in terms of the National Water Act, 1998 (Act 36 of 1998) (“NWA”) and a Waste Management License (“WML”) in terms of the National Waste Management Act2008 (Act 59 of 2008) from the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (“DMRE”). 4.1. Description of the proposed activities to be undertaken The following activities are proposed: Open cast Coal mining The mineable coal seams will be drilled and blasted where it is not dug freely. The blasted and the free dug coal will be extracted using hydraulic excavators and truck combination of (RDT’s) and (ADT’s) to a dedicated stockpile. The stockpiled coal will be crushed and screened onsite and from there stockpiled at the stockpile area and to a designated beneficiation facility using road haulers. However, if a decision is made to beneficiate the coal on site, a provision to construct crushing, screening, and processing plants have been made. Rehabilitation will commence once the bottom seam has been fully excavated. Underground Coal mining Bord and pillar mining using Continuous Miners (“CM") was selected as the primary extraction method for underground reserves. In bord and pillar mining, parallel roadways are developed in the direction of advance. Perpendicular roads, called splits are developed at predetermined intervals to parallel roads. These roads interlink, creating pillars. The underground panel widths are determined by the size of the pillars required to support the overburden above the coal seam and the length of the production equipment’s trailing cables. In between mining panels are barrier pillars which carries the abutment stress and therefore breaks the span of the panels which assist with the overall mine stability. The road width design is 7.2m wide with an average mining height of 2.5m. The pillar size determined by the safety factor formula results in the pillar strength divided by the pillar load. The underground panels consist of seven to eleven roadways. The following main mining activities form part of the bord and pillar mining method: • Coal cutting and loading – the CM uses the rotating drum cutting head, equipped with cutting picks to cut the coal face. A loading mechanism collects the broken coal and delivers it onto the gathering arm which loads the coal on the CM’s chain conveyor. The CM’s conveyor conveys the broken coal from the front to the rear of the CM. The CM’s chain conveyor capable of vertical and horizontal movement enables coal loading into the shuttle car. • Coal hauling and tipping – the loaded shuttle car is used to haul the coal to the section’s feeder breaker that sizes the coal and feeds it into the conveyor belt system. • Roof support – a roof bolt machine installs roof bolts once the CM has finished the development face and the roof support is installed on a systematic basis. Roof bolts enhance the stability of the overlying roof. The spacing between roof bolts and length of the bolts is determined through geotechnical studies. • Coal transportation – a conveyor belt system transports the coal from the mining section to the coal stockpile on surface via the underground Adit. Soil removal and storage Topsoil will be excavated using a hydraulic excavator sand ADTs and then hauled to a topsoil stockpile area, until such time where concurrent rehabilitation and direct placement can commence. Stockpiles or berms will be positioned along the peripheral portions of the property, forming the barrier to the public, and dedicated topsoil dumps. The topsoil will be excavated to an average depth of 1.5m over the area that will be disturbed by approved mining activities. Soft overburden material removal and storage Soft overburden material will be excavated using a hydraulic excavators and ADTs. This material will not be blasted, but it will be fragmented by the excavator breakout force. The thickness of soft overburden layer will be determined using the limit of weathering, defined through exploration drilling. The soft overburden moved from the box cut will be stored in a dedicated overburden dump. When the opencast mining activities reach steady state, the soft overburden material will be placed back into the void for concurrent rehabilitation. The soft overburden material stored in the overburden dump will be moved back into the final void when the planned coal is completely extracted. This will be done as part of rehabilitation activities. Hard overburden material removal and placement The hard overburden material is the material below the limit of weathering. This material will be drilled and blasted prior to any excavation that can take place. The hard overburden material will be excavated to the roof of each coal seam that is planned to be mined. This material will be moved by the combination of hydraulic excavators, RDT’s and ADT’s. The hard overburden material stripped from the initial box cut will be placed in a dedicated overburden dump, placed in an area where the water run-off from the dump can be contained and managed. When the mine production profile reaches steady-state, hard overburden material will be rolled back into the voids by means of dozers and/or excavators and trucks. The voids will be filled up to the required rehabilitation level. Associated infrastructure The major surface infrastructure required to be developed include: • Haul roads • Access Road • Electrical sub-stations with overhead powerlines • Soft overburden dump • Hard overburden dump • Coal stock yard • Surface workshops • Equipment hard park areas • Wash bay • Bulk storage for fuel • Sewage treatment plant • Sewage treatment pipeline • Storm water infrastructure (Culverts, channels and berms) • Firefighting and dust suppression reticulation systems • Underground dewatering and reticulation systems • Potable and service water reticulation systems • Ventilation shaft and associated ventilation infrastructure • Perimeter and security fencing • Pollution control dams and transfer dams (or sumps) • Buildings (e.g. offices, change houses, etc.) • Crushing and screening plant