Member Info for Diggerman

You have to go back to 2009/10 to find a time when the place made money.

After the mining team left the wheels came off

It was nice to see the honest and relatively positive podcast.
From what engineertz says and what I know there are still plenty of challenges ahead. My big concern is that amount of mining required to keep the wash plant fed, I believe this was the reason it didn't happen before. If a mid coal yield of 30% is used then 4000t would require 13,333t of feed. If the mining stripping ratio is 3t waste to 1t of coal then you have to move over 50kt a month.
Do they have the capability?

I'm currently in Tanzania but not the west.
Hopefully they can sort themselves out, dry at the moment, big rain starts in March and hits hard in April. Still time to fix the roads and get pumps and sumps in place

Not much mined stock, run of mine (ROM) for processing
Fines are screened out before the wash plan so low value, possibly valueless. The low calorific value means it's uneconomic to transport far.
Washed coal is where the money is but low stock, would be good in regular production, everything is sold.

I didn't work for EDL but friends of mine did and some still do. I stopped posting because so people didn't like the painful truth but now it looks like it could be heading in the right direction. They need to get someone on site who understands mining and not bums on seat because they are cheap.

From what I heard, the wash plant initially struggled with the fines going through. They added a pre screen which resolved the problem but it removed around 40% of the feed. With around 25% of the washplant throughput going to waste (mudstone) and a strip ratio of 3:1 then over 6t of material needs to be moved to produce 1t of washed coal. Not a bad number but the bottleneck will still be mining. Need to move 60kt to produce 10kt of washed coal.

Hopefully they will now invest in the required equipment which is what I've been saying from the start. 4 trucks to 1 excavator and a minimum of 2 excavators and this could start moving. Spend the capital, don't rent, operating costs should be low and profits will come.

Sorry, in sunny England at the moment. I can ask people in TZ and see what they know

Hopefully they bring the necessary equipment to make this work. There is a market for industrial coal

It'll be last thing on a Friday, always the same with bad news!

If the capital burned over the last 4 years had been available at the start the the equipment would have been in place to produce a reasonable amount of coal for industrial applications. A typical undercapitalized operation that has been drip fed to keep it going.
I still think this could be a success as industrial coal but the operation is too small to sustain the corporate costs alone.

In Kenya at the moment but flying south later. Will be a few hundred miles from sumbawanga so can update on the weather. Usually showers now, big rains are March and April

Couldn't agree more, been saying for years this is a mismanaged and undercapitalized operation. If the money that has been raised over the last 4 years was put in at the start it could have been successful. Still needs a lump of capital in addition to the sustaining to make it work.
I still believe there is a market in East Africa for industrial coal, but the power plant is a non starter.

Where is aerial to defend EDL. I've said many times what is going on yet all i received was criticism!!!

It is hopeful things will start soon. The legal issue with the former workers is holding up the investment

I have to agree, very little done this year so far. Maybe this month now the rain has stopped!

Exactly what i said, the future of coal is industrial use.

I was actually thinking about solar for Tanzania, now cheaper per MW to construct and run than coal.
Hydro is already in place for much of east Africa with excess capacity hence the need for the east Africa power grid upgrades

Coal is far from dead, it will be critical for industrial use for years to come. What you are really saying is, coal is dead for power generation and that is possible in a country with almost limitless sunshine and surrounding by cheap electricity from hydro.
The real worry is, is edl dead. They could be from what they have announced recently... Ie, nothing

Great place for a beer it is too. Shame about the mining ??