JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed Thungela Resources is poised to spend R3.9-billion worth of capital in South Africa going forward.

An estimated R1.3-billion of this capital expenditure (capex) is scheduled to be spent in the next six months and a further R800-million in the final six months of the company’s financial year to end June 2025.

Of the initial R1.3-billion, R800-million is expansionary capex for the Elders and Zibulo North Shaft projects, and R500-million is sustaining stay-in-business capex.

The remaining R1.8-billion will be spent to complete the life extension projects at Elders Colliery, near Bethal, and the Zibulo Colliery, near Ogies. Both Mpumalanga-located projects are on schedule and on budget.

“These investments secure the future of our South African operations,” Thungela CFO Deon Smith outlined in a pre-close stock exchange news service announcement covered by Mining Weekly.

The full transitioning of Thungela’s South African coal marketing activities from Anglo American Marketing is scheduled for completion on July 1. In addition, the team, based at Thungela Marketing International in Dubai, markets coal from the acquired Ensham mine in Australia.

In the first six months of this year, South Africa’s Richards Bay benchmark coal price averaged an 18%-lower $99.71/t. Moreover, discount to the Richards Bay price is 1% higher than last year’s 14%.

Export saleable production from South African operations in the six months to the end of this year is expected to be 6.2-million tonnes, which, on an annualised basis, remains within the guidance range of up to 12.5-million tonnes.

Free-on-board cost per export tonne excluding royalties for the South African operations for the first half of the financial year is expected to be at the lower end of the guidance range of R1 170/t to R1 290/t.

Should Transnet Freight Rail’s (TFR's) performance remain at the expected 46-million tonnes on an annualised industry basis, Thungela expects on-mine inventory to increase 1.1-million tonnes to the end of the year.

The South African coal industry, including Thungela, is continuing to support TFR in the procurement of critical locomotive spares and reports that the State-owned rail utility has made good progress installing the compressors and batteries that have been delivered.

“We expect to see improvements related to the installation of these spares and other initiatives from 2025,” said Smith.