Minergy discovers more coal reserves at Masama
Staff Writer | Friday October 20, 2017 14:36
The Botswana Stock Exchange-listed company made the announcement this week following the recent completion of a Competent Persons Report (CPR).
Comparing the 2016 and 2017 estimates, Minergy chief executive officer, Andre Bojé said the total coal resource for the project area increased from 347.1 million tonnes to 389.9 million tonnes, an improvement of 12%.
“Of this, the opencast area has increased from 71.2 million tonnes to 82.3 Mt, which translates into 25 years of opencast operations,” he said.
According to Bojé, this is good news for the company, which has plans to build an opencast coal mine at Masama with the potential to produce 2.4 million tonnes per annum.
He said the company will focus on delivering high-quality coal to the regional market, including Botswana and South Africa, as well as to the export market.
Bojé stated that the Masama Coal Project, located in the south-western corner of Botswana’s Mmamabula coalfield, is nearer to existing rail, road and water infrastructure, and has significant distance advantages over existing competing suppliers to regional customers, offering great potential for the southern African region and the export market.
He said the size of the resource also supports scalable production, presenting an opportunity to provide export coal to traders who supply India, China, and other areas of Asia, as well as Europe, should international coal price remain stable.
Bojé stated that for the first time a measured resource was declared totalling 12.7 million tonnes and the overall indicated resource increased from 61.7 million tonnes to 73.2 million tonnes, a 19% increase.
“The exploration programme vindicates our decision to focus on a reduced area of the overall prospecting area with a view to a long-term project supplying the regional market and ultimately the seaborne thermal coal market,” he said.
Minergy is set be the second producer of coal in Botswana, and says they are committed to being on the forefront of developing a vibrant coal industry in the country.
“All our timelines for the project have now been met and we are confident of being in production in the third quarter of 2018,” he said.