south africa's coal demand and supply trends -, page-8

Auswedes: re hedging: "it's no boon for the company IMO"

I have no idea why you would think that

The hedge book is an valuable asset for CCC

Coal hedging program with ABSA Capital of approx. 664,550 tonnes at average of ZAR1,057/t against forecast total FOB costs of ~ZAR490/t, as per SRK Competent Persons Report

Just to do the sums again - 664,550 x margins of ZAR567 ($67 at currently high USD:ZAR of 8.5) = $44.5m vs total capex of $40m (including contingencies), which is a Capex payback period of ~1yr 2months against a 10+ year mine life [Total JORC compliant resources of 68.3Mt, with 5.44Mt saleable reserves]. Plus SIOC-cdt* still need to contribute their 26% of capex/opex.

*Currently doing very nicely from their 3% shareholding in SIOC/Kumba Iron Ore (offering gross dividend yields of 7.8%):

http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/KIO:SJ