| Wed 5 May 2010, 13:03 | | OPT - Optimum Coal Holdings Limited - Optimum Coal operational update |
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OPT - Optimum Coal Holdings Limited - Optimum Coal operational update
OPTIMUM COAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
(Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa)
(Registration number 2006/007799/06)
Share code: OPT
ISIN: ZAE000144663
Issuer code: OPT
("Optimum Coal" or the "Company")
OPTIMUM COAL OPERATIONAL UPDATE
Optimum Coal, a leading South African coal mining and exploration group, listed
on the JSE Limited, wishes to inform shareholders and update the market on
operational performance at Optimum Collieries and Koornfontein Mines. Optimum
Coal owns 100% and 96% of Optimum Collieries and Koornfontein Mines,
respectively. Shareholders are referred to the SENS announcement on Monday 03
May, 2010 which outlined the increase in the Company`s ownership at Koornfontein
Mines from 91% to 96%.
Table 1 - Salient Production Features at Optimum Collieries and Koornfontein
Mines for the 10 month period 1 July 2009 to 30 April 2010 (shown on a 100%
attributable basis)
Units Optimum Koornfontein
Collieries Mines
ROM production t`000 10,763 2,414
Eskom Saleable t`000 3,931 1,076
Export Saleable t`000 4,073 1,481
Optimum Collieries produced 10.763 million tons of run-of-mine coal and a total
of 8.004 million tons of saleable coal during the 10 month period to April 2010.
Our best estimate of Optimum Collieries` ROM production for the financial year
ending June 2010 is 13.5 million tons from which an estimated 5.0 million export
saleable tonnes and 5.1 million Eskom saleable tons will be produced. The export
saleable forecast for the 12 month period ended 30 June 2010 has been revised
down by 0.4 million tons to 5.0 million tons, whilst the Eskom production
forecast of 5.1 million tons remains in line with contractual commitments.
Chief Executive Officer Mike Teke said; "Notwithstanding excellent progress at
our Boschmanspoort underground section at Optimum Collieries, the Pullenshope,
Kwagga and Eikeboom opencast sections have been adversely affected by the
extremely high rainfall experienced recently. This has resulted in a downward
revision of saleable coal volumes for the 12 month period to June 2010.
Koornfontein Mines produced 2.414 million tons of run-of-mine coal and 2.557
million tons of saleable coal during the 10 month period to April 2010. Our best
estimate of run-of-mine production during the 12 months to June 2010 is 2.9
million tons of which an estimated 1.74 million tons of saleable export coal
will be produced and 1.4 million saleable tons will be produced for Eskom. Eskom
saleable production includes secondary washing of discard material."
Teke said further: "We are most encouraged with progress at Koornfontein now
that we have equity and operational control. We have started supplying export
coal to Mercuria Energy Group and we are reviewing the life-of-mine plan at
Koornfontein in order to extract additional high quality export reserves. This
will enable us to further unlock installed but underutilised infrastructural
capacity at this well established operation."
Johannesburg
05 May 2010
For further enquiries please contact:
Optimum Coal Tel: +27 (0)11 325 0403
IRO, Kobus Breytenbach Tel: +27 (0)82 376 3112
College Hill
Jacques de Bie Tel: +27 (0)11 447 3030
Sponsor
RAND MERCHANT BANK (A division of FirstRand Bank Limited)
Date: 05/05/2010 13:03:01 Produced by the JSE SENS Department.
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