Coal of Africa Ltd. (CoAL), via one of its black empowered subsidiaries, purchased the Chapudi coal project and several other coal exploration properties from Rio Tinto for $75 million. Chapudi has approximately 1.04 billion metric tons of JORC-compliant resources and is contiguous with the company’s Makhado coking coal project.
“This acquisition bolsters our existing coking coal projects with the Chapudi coal project alone doubling our Makhado project’s 947 million mt resource,”said John Wallington, CEO, CoAL. “The acquisition also comes at a critical time with the results from the Makhado project definitive feasibility study due in early 2011 and we believe the acquisition will strengthen our application for New Order Mining Rights for the Makhado Project.”
The Soutpansberg Basin is the only coal basin in South Africa that hosts significant premium hard coking coal and this acquisition establishes CoAL as the dominant landholder in that region.
