extract from Mining weekly Exxaro report;“We have built a very...

extract from Mining weekly Exxaro report;

“We have built a very good partnership with Eskom and also with Transnet. The work that Transnet has done is quite remarkable in the Waterberg,” Nkosi said.

Transnet, which has improved the Grootegeluk rail line, is now providing four trains a week, up on its previous two a week, which, if sustained, will double Grootegeluk’s export capacity to 4.5-million tons a year in 2014.

“We are now focusing on growing our coal export business and the initiatives being taken are quite critical,” Nkosi added.

Exxaro operational head Mzolisi Mgojo told the meeting in response to Standard Bank mining analyst Tim Clarke that Transnet’s intention over the next three to four years was to increase capacity of the rail line from the Waterberg coalfield to 28-million tons a year.

In the current period, the capacity had been increased from 4-million tons to 6.5-million tons a year through the creation of an additional rail loop.

Another loop to be put in place during 2014 would take the capacity to 10-million tons a year and allow 200-wagon trainsets to function from Richards Bay Coal Terminal through Ermelo into the Waterberg.

“A lot of work has been done on the ground, which Transnet does not shout about, but we always say that the real test is the actual movement of coal,” Mgojo said.
This can only auger well for RES's rail ambitions.

The banks here are more conservative than Maggie Thatcher, but PJ is getting his ducks in a row. I guess they will come to the party.