South Africa-based miner Coal of Africa Limited (CoAL) has announced that in August this year its board approved a ZAR 220 million ($22.09 million) expansion at Vele colliery. This is in line with the company's publicly announced strategy to reposition itself as a project development company focusing on its coking coal assets.
According to Coal of Africa's statement, the approval follows the reevaluation and confirmation of the quality of coal at Vele, and the conclusion of a review of the current operations. As part of that process and in order for the colliery to reduce the current cash losses incurred, the colliery will cease production during October 2013 in order to prepare for the construction phase of the announced expansion.
Completion of the expansion is expected by the end of 2014. Thereafter, the colliery will begin to ramp up operations during 2015, and will be at full production by the end of that year.