BISICHI MINING PLC
Black Wattle Colliery, finalises deal on high quality contiguous reserve
Bisichi Mining PLC (‘Bisichi’), the mining company with direct coal mining
operations in South Africa, is pleased to announce that its principal South
African subsidiary, Black Wattle Colliery (‘Black Wattle’), has concluded an
agreement with Blue Nightingale Trading 817 (Pty) Ltd (“Blue Nightingale”), to
purchase Run of Mine coal from an opencast reserve of coal contiguous to Black
Wattle’s existing opencast mine. The reserve consists of approximately three
million metric tonnes of high quality low phosphorous run of mine coal with an
average opencast stripping ratio of 2.8 to 1. The agreement with Blue
Nightingale, a black owned and managed mining company, includes the
implementation of a skills transfer programme.
This transaction was concluded immediately after Blue Nightingale had
acquired from the Department of Mineral Resources the relevant mining approvals
for a large portion of the reserve. Opening of the opencast pit is to commence
immediately with first Run of Mine coal expected to be received by Black Wattle
in December 2010.
Andrew Heller, Managing Director of Bisichi, said:
‘We are very pleased to be involved with Blue Nightingale in the development of
this reserve, which is a significant addition to our own existing opencast
operations. The conclusion of this agreement will have a significant impact on
Black Wattle’s development and life of mine. The high quality low phosphorous
coal which will be mined from the new reserve can be sold either into the
domestic metallurgical markets at a premium price or the export market and we
look forward to taking advantage of this as production from the reserve
increases in 2011.’
END
For further information, please call:
Andrew Heller, Bisichi Mining PLC 020 7415 5030
