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Company profile

Keaton Energy Holdings Limited (Keaton Energy) was created to pursue the exploration of coal resources and the development of new coal mines. The company was formed when Antoinette Sedibe and Mandi Glad, the owners of coal prospecting company Rutendo Mining, forged a link with the Pouroulis family, a well-known entrepreneurial force in the South African mining industry for several decades.

From the outset, the company’s policy has been that it should operate as a fully empowered entity able to pursue the opportunities created by South Africa’s new mineral rights dispensation and the expectation of growing demand for coal as a source of energy. From this flows our fundamental strategy of identifying, applying for and prospecting rights in partnership with black economic empowerment (BEE) partners.

Keaton Energy’s specific skills lie in bringing together intellectual, technical and financial resources that can be applied to rapid and focused exploration and evaluation of prospecting rights. Once value has been determined, the company will bring these projects into production in partnership with its BEE partners with the medium–term objective of producing an annual 2 000 000 tonnes of saleable steam coal, rising to 5 000 000 tonnes in the longer term.

With its BEE partners, Keaton Energy is currently developing a coal mine and is at an advanced stage of drilling and evaluating another attractive coal resource, both located in the coal fields of South Africa’s Mpumalanga province.

• The 1 635-hectare Vanggatfontein Project (formerly known as the Delmas Project) was awarded a 20-year mining licence in June 2009. It has a total in-situ mineable coal resource of 163.43m tonnes and a 25.9m tonne coal reserve. The first phase of development, comprising 3.4 million tonnes of 5 Seam metallurgical coal and a 50 000 tpm processing plant, will produce 30 000 tpm of metallurgical coal. The mine development will proceed in synch with commercial offtake agreements.
• The 6 853-hectare Sterkfontein project has the potential to be developed as an underground mine. Evaluation of our drilling results indicates that Sterkfontein has a mineable coal resource of 34 800 000 tonnes, with the recently added 2 844 hectares still under exploration. This estimate is based on standard mining parameters and estimates of geological losses, and does not include a portion of the northern part of the property. Initial indications are that approximately half of the coal mined would be suitable for the export market.

Vanggatfontein (formerly known as Delmas) and Sterkfontein Projects: Coal Resource and Reserve Statement May 2009 (PDF - 264KB)

In addition, the Klip Colliery was brought into production in October 2008 and is expected to produce up to 400 000 tons of coal over a life of about 18 months.

In November 2007 Keaton Energy ensured its ability to finance its exploration and mine development programme by raising R312 million through the private placing of 45 502 865 ordinary shares at R7 each.

Keaton Energy’s shares listed on its main board of the JSE Limited with effect from the market’s opening on Tuesday, 22 April, 2008. Prior to the listing R100m was raised through the private placing of 10 000 000 shares at R10 per share. At that point, the company’s authorised capital was 250 million ordinary shares of 0.1 cent each (R0.001) and its issued capital, 142 741 293 ordinary shares.

The JSE listing is expected to provide a base for attracting both new coal opportunities and suitable BEE partners.