Leslie 1 Coal Mine

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Leslie 1 Coal Mine is a proposed coal mine in Leander, Gert Sibande, Mpumalanga, South Africa.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Leslie 1 Coal Mine	Leander, Gert Sibande, Mpumalanga, South Africa	-26.28792, 28.941667 (approximate)

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

Loading map...

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Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Project Type	Opening Year	Closing Year
Proposed	Permitted	New	–	–

Table 3: Operation details

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
4	–	–	Underground	–	97	70	685

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
125	–	–	Highveld	Bituminous	–	–

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
Thungela Resources Ltd	Anglo American	South Africa, UK

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

Background

The Leslie 1 Mining Project is a proposed coal project, located north and south of Leandra in the Govan Mbeki Local Municipality in the Mpumalanga province, South Africa.

In recent years, there have been no public updates or evidence the project is advancing, and as of 2022, it appears to be cancelled. In March 2018, then-owner Anglo American lodged a mining rights application to mine 5 areas within the Leslie 1 mining project. In the draft scoping report, Kongiwe Environmental Science and Engineering, the consulting company that performed the assessment, wrote that:

"Extracted raw coal will be supplied directly to the local or export market, and/or to the nearest Eskom beneficiation plant or colliery at a rate of approximately 4 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of Run of Mine (ROM) coal. It is anticipated that the mines will be active for a total mine life of at least 35 years, including rehabilitation and closure periods."

A public meeting on the mine was to be held 18 Apr. 2018.

Kongiwe posted a final environmental assessment for the mine on 12 September 2018, which recommended that the project go ahead. Specifically, they write:

"Based on the information contained in this report, it is the opinion of the EAP and the specialists that the negative environmental impacts, aside from the negative high impacts in the table above) resulting from the Leslie 1 Project can be mitigated to within acceptable limits and that the project should be authorized. This opinion holds provided all the recommendations proposed in the specialist studies and the EIA and EMPr as well as legal requirements are implemented and adhered to." However, the project never begin construction.

In 2021, Anglo American made the decision to exit from coal operations, and as a result, its South African thermal coal assets were transferred to Thungela Resources Limited. Neither Anglo American nor Thungela's recent annual reports mention the Leslie 1 project, and as such, it appears to be cancelled.

• Operator: Thungela Resources Limited
• Owner: Thungela Resources Limited
• Location: North and south of Leandra in the Govan Mbeki Local Municipality, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa
• GPS coordinates: -26.287920, 28.941667 (approximate)
• Mine Status: Proposed / Cancelled
• Production Capacity: 4 million tonnes per annum
• Total Resource:
• Mineable Reserves: Approximately 125 million tonnes
• Coal Type: Thermal
• Mine Size: 9,705 hectares
• Mine Type: Underground
• Start Year: TBD
• Number of Employees 685 (expected)
• Source of Financing:

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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.