The coal was processed at Wescoal’s nearby beneficiation plant. The Elandspruit Mine in Mpumulanga is located 10kms West of Middelburg.

The initial mining operations started last month and total production from the mining division is estimated to be somewhere around 335 000 tons of Run of Mine (ROM) per month during the final quarter of the current financial year.

Wescoal CEO Waheed Sulaiman said: "This is equivalent to approximately 4-million tons of ROM on an annualised basis.

"In addition, we have now successfully operated our processing plant with feed from Elandspruit and the results are very much in line with expectations.

"We have also started selling Elandpsruit coal into the domestic and export markets."

"The outlook for commodities remains constrained.

"Fortunately we are not too exposed on the export market which is in the front line of this depressed situation but nevertheless we are taking a very pragmatic approach in the short-term with a view to our medium to long-term sustainability."