CoAL sells Mooiplaats Colliery to Blackspear

by Ina King (Potgieter)

Australian mining company Coal of Africa Limited (CoAL) has signed a Sale and Purchase Agreement for the disposal of its Mooiplaats Colliery, the thermal underground colliery in the Ermelo Coalfield in Mpumalanga, to a wholly-owned subsidiary of Blackspear Holdings Proprietary Limited for a gross consideration of R 250 million in cash. South African company Blackspear Holdings is a privately-owned company which focuses on operating and developing a portfolio of coal assets in South Africa.

It is envisaged that the consideration will be settled in two tranches. The first tranche of R 150 million is expected to be made during the first quarter of 2015 and the second tranche of R 100 million is payable on either 12 months from the payment of the first tranche or 30 November 2015, whichever is the earliest. Payment is pursuant to fulfilment of all conditions precedent, including regulatory approvals. Blackspear has until 31 October to provide CoAL with evidence of funding.

Companies subscribing to Africa Mining IQ’s e-mail alerts will be among the first to know about new developments, and key contact details, as this type of information is updated regularly on the Africa Mining IQ intelligence portal. Blackspear’s key assets and operations include the Puleng operations in Middleburg, Mpumalanga, the Thutsi coal operation and Overvaal project, both situated in Ermelo, also in Mpumalanga. The Overvaal project consists of 252 million tonnes of gross tonnes in-situ and is the resource bordering the Mooiplaats site.

Blackspear will commence monthly payments of R 2.3 million for Mooiplaats from November this year, increasing to R4 million a month from February 2015 until the conditions with respect to the first tranche payment are met.

All investment opportunities for this mining project, and many others, are available for viewing on Africa Mining IQ. With over 1 850 projects in Africa currently listed on its online database, Africa Mining IQ organises projects in terms of grassroots, pre-feasibility, feasibility, bankable, active, operational and dormant phases.

The sale of Mooiplaats, which was deemed non-core by CoAL on 30 June 2013 and placed ‘on care and maintenance’ from 1 October that year, was one of two remaining priorities under CoAL’s five-point turnaround strategy. The last outstanding priority is to secure funding and regulatory approvals for the wholly-owned Makhado coking coal project in the Soutpansberg coalfield in Limpopo Province.

Mining projects in Mpumalanga account for 83% of South Africa's coal production. Current mining projects in Mpumalanga include 68 Coal, 19 Industrial, 14 Platinum Group Metals (PGM), 13 Gold, 5 Nickel, 3 Iron Ore and 1 Chrome.