Klipspruit Coal Mine

This article is part of the Global Coal Mine Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

Download full dataset

Report an error

Sub-articles:

Global coal mines Coal mines in China Coal mines in India Coal mines in the United States Coal mines in Australia Coal mines in Russia Coal mines in Indonesia

Related-articles:

Largest coal mines in the world Coal mine impacts from Covid-19 Environmental issues of coal Coal mining Coal reserves Coal terminals

Klipspruit Coal Mine is an operating coal mine in Ogies, Nkangala, Mpumalanga, South Africa.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Klipspruit Coal Mine	Ogies, Nkangala, Mpumalanga, South Africa	-25.991333, 29.061537 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the coal mine:

Loading map...

{"type":"SATELLITE","minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"types":["ROADMAP","SATELLITE","HYBRID","TERRAIN"],"mappingservice":"googlemaps3","width":"600px","height":"500px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"visitedicon":"","wmsoverlay":false,"zoom":16,"layers":[],"controls":["pan","zoom","type","scale","streetview","rotate"],"zoomstyle":"DEFAULT","typestyle":"DEFAULT","autoinfowindows":false,"resizable":false,"kmlrezoom":false,"poi":true,"cluster":false,"clustergridsize":60,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clusteraveragecenter":true,"clusterminsize":2,"imageoverlays":[],"kml":[],"gkml":[],"searchmarkers":"","fullscreen":false,"scrollwheelzoom":false,"locations":[{"text":"","title":"","link":"","lat":-25.991333,"lon":29.061537,"icon":"","inlineLabel":"Operating Mine\n"}]}

Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Opening Year	Closing Year
Operating	–	2019	–

Table 3: Operation details

Note: The asterisk (*) signifies that the value is a GEM estimated figure.

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
–	7.85	–	Surface	Open Pit	2.6	60*	2480

Table 4: Coal resources and destination

Total Reserves (Mt)	Year of Total Reserves Recorded	Total Resources (Mt)	Coalfield	Coal Type	Coal Grade	Primary Consumer/ Destination
186	–	–	Witbank	Bituminous	Thermal	Richards Bay Coal Terminal

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
Seriti Power Pty Ltd	Seriti Resources Holdings [90.0%]	Australia, South Africa

Table 6: Historical production (unit: million tonnes per annum)

ROM or Saleable	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
ROM	6	–	–	–	–	4	3

Note: The above section was automatically generated and is based on data from the Global Coal Mine Tracker April 2024 release and the September supplement.

Background

The Klipspruit mine is operated by Thabong Coal, a subsidiary of Seriti Resources, producing 8 million tonnes per annum, 30 km west of Witbank in the Ogies District of the Mpumalanga Province, South Africa.

The mine currently has an expansion project, called the Weltevreden coal project, to increase the life of the mine. Klipspruit Mine was previously operated by South Africa Energy Coal (SAEC), a subsidiary of South32. Prior to this, it was majority owned by BHP Billiton Energy Coal South Africa, a subsidiary of BHP Billiton. BHP Billtion describes the coal produced at the mine as being "a medium rank bituminous thermal coal, most of which can be beneficiated for the European or Asian export market."

BHP Billiton states on its website that the mine "Klipspruit is the first new coal mine to be established by BHP Billiton Energy Coal South Africa in more than 14 years. The Klipspruit Colliery started in October 2003. Coal is transported 34 km to the Rietspruit wash plant where the export coal is beneficiated and loaded onto trains."

In December 2007 BHP Billiton announced that it and Anglo Coal had formed a 50:50 joint venture to construct the Phola Coal Processing Plant on the Klipspruit mine. The $450 million plant is designed to 16 million tonnes per annum of coal, half from each of the partners. For BHP Billiton the project will facilitate the expansion of the Klipspruit mine to 8 million tonnes per annum and avoid transporting coal to the Rietspruit washery. The Rietspruit washery was closed in early August 2009.

The company states that export coal is transported to Richards Bay Coal Terminal via Spoornet, a government business enterprise railway.

BHP states that based on current reserves Klipspruit has a projected life of 20 years though further exploration work could extend this. Following the establishment of the new processing plant BHP expects that 4 million tonnes per annum of coal from the mine will be exported through the Richards Bay Coal Terminal of which it is part-owner.

In its 2009 annual report BHP Billiton states that "BECSA is the holder of an Old Order Mining Right. An application for conversion to a New Order Mining Right was submitted in 2004 and is still being processed ... The project was approved by the Mpumalanga Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment in 2003. An initial mini-pit was started in August 2003 as a truck and shovel contractor operation."

In June 2021, South32 completed the sale of its shareholding in SAEC to Seriti Resources. The discontinued operation represents the entire SAEC operating segment which included the Klipspruit colliery.

• Operator: Thabong Coal
• Owner: Seriti Resources
• Location: Ogies, Emalahleni, Nkangala, Mpumalanga, South Africa.
• GPS Coordinates: -25.991333, 29.061537
• Status: Operating
• Production Capacity: 6.5 million tonner per annum
• Total Resource:
• Mineable Reserves: 186 million tons
• Coal type: Bituminous, Thermal
• Workforce Size: 740
• Mine Type: surface, underground
• Start Year:
• Source of Financing:

Articles and Resources

Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of world coal mines, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Mine Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.