Shumba raises P20m from Mauritius investors
Brian Benza | Friday July 11, 2014 11:52
The company stated this week that further to the announcement last month, which extended the closing date of a private placement of new ordinary shares at $0.12 each to June 30, 2014, the shares have been bought.
“The directors are pleased to confirm that undertakings to subscribe for 18,572,482 new ordinary shares for a total subscription value of $2,3 million, have been received from private and institutional investors based in Mauritius. The 18,572,482 new ordinary shares will be issued on 16 July 2014 following which the total number of shares in issue will be 196,958,562,” read the statement.
These new ordinary shares will be admitted for listing by the Botswana Stock Exchange(BSE) and the Stock Exchange of Mauritius Limited (SEM) on August 13, 2014, following completion of regulatory approval processes.
Shumba Coal is promoting a 300 MW Sechaba Energy Project (SEP) in the central district.
In a recent statement to the local bourse, the company announced that it has concluded a scoping study into transmission solutions. It described options available to export power from the SEP to South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Shumba, which is majority owned by citizens, joins other firms such as African Energy and Jindal that are making strides towards monetisation of Botswana’s estimated 212 billion tonne coal resources through exports.
The SEP will be a 300MW power station with the full output injected into BPC’s 400kV high-voltage transmission grid at the nearby Morupule B 400kV sub-station.
According to the company, the study contemplates changes to the base case by scaling up the export volume by doubling the capacity of the SEP and thus increasing exports by 100%.
“The Botswana power transmission grid is interconnected via Phokoje substation to South Africa (at Matimba) and Zimbabwe (at Insukamini) at 400kV. The SEP can use existing high voltage transmission infrastructure to export power cheaply to South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia,” read Shumba statement.
Results of the study, according to the company, show that transmission costs of SEP exports are lowest for South Africa and Zimbabwe markets and higher for export to Namibia.
It was also established that there are no expected system constraints to address the interconnections to South Africa and Zimbabwe that require investments or other interventions.
Currently, the Sechaba Project has approximately one billion tonnes of thermal coal resources. The company believes that due to the SEP’s proximity to the A1 highway, railway line and the existence of large resources of ground water and two river basins, the project is potentially well situated for the development of a mine and a power station.
A scoping study concluded in 2012 estimated capital expenditure for the coal mine at $200 million, based on a five million tonne per annum operation.