Woestalleen Colliery

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Woestalleen Colliery is an operating coal mine in Middelburg, Mpumalanga, South Africa.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Woestalleen Colliery	Middelburg, Mpumalanga, South Africa	-25.9464473, 29.6269283 (exact)

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

Loading map...

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Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Opening Year	Closing Year
Operating	–	1986	–

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
2.4	–	–	Surface	Open Pit	–	60*	423*

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
20	–	–	–	Bituminous	Thermal	Richards Bay Coal Terminal

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
Coal of Africa	Coal of Africa	South Africa

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

Background

Woestalleen Colliery is a surface coal mine in Middelburg, Mpumalanga, South Africa.

Woestalleen Mine was formerly owned by NuCoal, however in December 2009, Nucoal was sold to Coal of Africa, making it the mine's new owner.

• Operator: Coal of Africa
• Owner: Coal of Africa
• Location: Middelburg District, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa
• Coordinates: -25.9464473, 29.6269283 (Exact)
• Status: Operating
• Production Capacity: 2.4 million tonnes per annum
• Total Resource:
• Mineable Reserves: 20 million tonnes
• Coal Type: Bituminous (Thermal)
• Mine Type: Surface
• Start Year: 1986
• Source of Financing:

Environmental Controversy

In November 2020, South Africa's Department of Water and Sanitation opened a criminal case against the Woestalleen mine following a directive issued by the Department to suspend the water use license of the mine due to their continued pollution of water resources in the area. Upon investigation, it was discovered there was an unlawful discharge of poor quality effluent from the dam into the Woestalleen Spruit. This poor quality water effluent was contaminating not only the Spruit, but groundwater resources, aquatic life, and agricultural users who rely on the Spruit for irrigation purposes.

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.