JSE-listed Keaton Energy will proceed with its fourth coal-mining project, Leeuwfontein, in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province, the junior miner said on Wednesday.

Keaton Energy MD Paul Miller said that following completion of a 69-hole drilling programme on the property in November 2008, a South African Mineral Resource Committee-compliant coal resource has now been declared for the Leeuwfontein project.

Leeuwfontein is relatively small, covering some nine hectares, and contains a coal resource of 922 000 mineable on-site tons in the measured category.

“It will become the second of Keaton Energy’s two smaller, short-life projects after our Klip Colliery,” Miller said in a statement.

Keaton brought the Klip Colliery into production in October.

Miller said that work had begun on an application for a mining right over Leeuwfontein, with a view to receiving regulatory approvals for openpit mining in the second half of 2010.

source : miningweekly

Find More Other News : Coal, Mineral Exploration, mining companies