Forbes Coal

Forbes Coal, also known as Forbes & Manhattan Coal, is headquartered in Toronto, ON, Canada, and has bituminous coal and anthracite mines in the Klipriver coalfield, near Dundee, in the KwaZulu Natal province of South Africa. Forbes holds the majority share in two operating mines in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province and expects to unearth about one-million tons of coal in the 2011 financial year. In July 2011, Forbes Coal said it plans to triple production from its two mines within the next three to four years, and is considering coal acquisition opportunities in South Africa’s KwaZulu Natal and Mpumalanga provinces, as well as areas in Mozambique and Zimbabwe, as part of a longer-term plan to increase coal output to ten-million tons a year.

Corporate overview
Forbes and Manhattan Coal acquired a 53.5% interest in Slater Coal (Pty) Ltd., a South African company, which has a 70% interest in Zinoju Coal (Pty) Ltd. Zinoju holds a 100% interest in the Magdalena bituminous mine and the Aviemore anthracite mine.

Mining projects
The operating Magdalena bituminous and the Aviemore anthracite mines have a measured and indicated resource base of 54.2M t bituminous coal.

Magdalena coal project
The Magdalena property is located near the town of Dundee in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, and encompasses approximately 1,844 hectares. It consists of the Magdalena underground mine and the Magdalena open cast pit mine, and has an 43-101 measured and indicated mineral resource of 54.2 million tonnes of in situ coal with an estimated volume of 36.1 million cubic metres. The Magdalena opencast pit and underground mine has an estimated coal output of 100,000 tonnes of bituminous coal per month.

Aviemore coal project
The Aviemore property is located four kilometres from the town of Dundee in KwaZulu Natal. The Aviemore underground mine has an estimated coal output of 25,000 tonnes of anthracite coal per month.

Expansion of mines
In November 2011 Forbes subsidiary Slater Coal secured a R230-million loan facility from investment and private banking group Investec to expand the Magdalena mine to one-million tons in the next year, while production of anthracite at its Aviemore mine would be increased from 100,000 to 400,000 tons.

Coal Transport
In 2011, Forbes secured an allocation of 1.1-million tons of coal at the Richards Bay Coal Terminal over the next three years.

Citizens Groups Campaigning on Climate Change

 * Earthlife Africa
 * Climate Justice Now
 * groundWork
 * Federation for a Sustainable Environment

South Africa specific articles

 * Department of Minerals and Energy (South Africa)
 * Eskom
 * Nuclear power in South Africa
 * Richards Bay Coal Terminal
 * South African Centre for Carbon Capture and Storage
 * Carbon Capture and Storage in South Africa

International articles

 * Global use and production of coal
 * Australia and coal
 * Britain and coal
 * China and coal
 * Colombia and coal
 * Germany and coal
 * Indonesia and coal
 * Japan and coal
 * New Zealand and coal
 * South Africa and coal
 * United States and coal

External resources

 * Alison Hughes, Mary Haw, Harald Winkler, Andrew Marquard, Bruno Merven (Energy Research Centre, University of Cape Town), Energy Emissions: A modelling input into the Long Term Mitigation Scenarios process, Department of Environment Affairs and Tourism, South Africa, October 2007. (This report estimates current and future emissions in South Africa from the power generation sector).

External Articles

 * International Energy Agency, "Coal in South Africa in 2005", International Energy Agency website, accessed June 2008.
 * U.S. Geological Survey, South Africa 1994-2005
 * South African government, "National Response to South Africa's Electricity Shortage", January 2008.
 * Khadija Sharife, "South Africa: Country's Dirty Secret - Eskom and the Medupi Power Plant", AllAfrica.com, May 14, 2010