The Department of Energy’s Central Energy Fund (CEF) has invited capable service providers to submit proposals for a prefeasibility study (PFS) to determine the capital and operating costs for the design, construction and delivery of a process plant at its torbanite project (T-project), currently being developed north-west of Kinross, in Mpumalanga.

The T-project will entail the establishment of a torbanite and coal beneficiation plant that will be integrated into a No 5 Seam mine. The plant will process three-million tons a year of the No 5 Seam coal deposit.

Provisions of the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act and its regulations will be used as criteria for the selection of bidders, who will also be required to submit their broad-based black economic- empowerment ratings, where possible.

The winning bidder will receive access to the results of previous studies carried out by the CEF on the characteristics of the coal, to which it can refer as a basis for formulating the process design routes.

The appointed contractor will also be required to scrutinise and review the existing mining plan to verify the quantities and qualities of No 5 Seam run-of-mine (RoM) product that will be available to the project.

These RoM quantities and qualities will form the platform for the PFS and the subsequent definitive feasibility study work and will be recorded in a statement document to be signed by all parties.

The winning party will also have to include a comprehensive report in the PFS regarding an analytical work programme that will be agreed with the CEF, the contractor and the appointed analytical service provider.

The CEF indicated that the starting date of the PFS would be subject to negotiations between it and the successful service provider.

Total project mineable tons of No 5 Seam at the project were reported to be about 82.5-million tons, while total project mineable tons of No 4 Seam came in at about 137-million tons. There was also a limited No 2 Seam coal resource in the project area.

Planned mining operations will consist of mechanised narrow seam bord and pillar mining for the No 5 Seam, which occurrs at a depth of between 30 m and 130 m below surface, and mechanised full-seam bord and pillar mining for the No 4 Seam mining operations.

The torbanite associated with the No 5 Seam is found in the No 5 Seam Upper band that has a mean thickness of 53 cm and the No 5 Seam Lower band that has a mean thickness of 23 cm.

Although the No 5 Seam coal contains a lower volatile content than the torbanite, the CEF points out, this could be upgraded in a washing plant to a low-ash and high- calorific-value coal that could be sold into the local and export coal markets.

Interested bidders have until September 19 to submit their proposals.

The CEF expects to take delivery of the PFS report by April 12, 2014.