Intra Energy increases coal production

This has been achieved under extremely difficult conditions with unusually heavy rainfall, pressure to rapidly increase production to support Tanzania's rapid industrial expansion and as the sole commercial coal producer in Tanzania, to replace imported coal and manage cement industry expectations.

Despite these influences the Tancoal mine (owned 30% by the National Development Corporation of Tanzania - NDC and 70% by IEC) increased production in the first four months of the CY to 162 368 t compared with 55 128 t for the same period in 2016.

The increase in production to match anticipated sales was achieved by the operation of the first contract mining fleet in addition to existing mining plant, a new lower cost and more efficient blasting regime and installation of a new weighbridge at the Kitai Stockpile to improve the turnaround time for coal trucks. The queuing of more than 100 trucks to receive coal during the past several months has been eliminated with faster turnaround times.

The second phase expansion of production to 1 million tpy is expected to be completed by August 2017 with the introduction of the second contract mining fleet in June, an increase in fuel storage capacity and the operation of a new crushing, screening and stacking plant to be installed at IEC’s sales stockpile at Kitai. The new crusher will increase Tancoal's crushing capacity from 150 tph to 300 tph and improve efficiency as the current crushing plant is at mine site and the new plant will be at the Sales Stockpile (Kitai) (50 km from the mine), which will enable the mined raw coal to be transported directly from mine site to Kitai to reduce handling.

Teams from the Ministry of Energy and Minerals and the Prime Minister's Office have inspected operations and were pleased with the increased production and ability to meet any demands of the President of Tanzania's impressive industrialisation targets. The Government has assisted in organising media coverage to illustrate the progress of the Tancoal operations.

According to the CEO, Jim Shedd: "Our current focus is on raising prices to a sustainable level, entering into long term supply contracts, and most importantly cutting costs and increasing productivity.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/coal/22052017/intra-energy-increases-coal-production/