Colliery triples capacity to feed new power station

Brian Benza
Staff Writer | Friday December 9, 2011 00:00

 

Morupule B Power Station - which is executed on an engineering-procurement-construction (EPC)/Turnkey basis - entails the engineering design, manufacturing, procurement, construction and commissioning of four of 1500MW units. The first 150MW unit is expected to be in service by January 2012 and the last by October 2012.

MCM, formerly known as Morupule Colliery before the ongoing re-branding exercise, currently produces about one million tonnes of coal per annum (mtpa) with 60 percent of the production (600,000 tonnes) feeding into the existing 120MW Morupule Power Station.

 Taking journalists on a tour of the mine recently, Production Manager Matthew Bagopi said they were now at different stages of commissioning the new mine and associated plants with capacity now boosted by over three fold to 3.2 mtpa.

'The expansion of the coal will see our capacity at more than three times the existing production while our labour force has also increased from just below 300 to 485 workers,' Bagopi said.

'From the increased production of 3.2 mtpa, the new Morupule B Power Station is set to consume about 2.2 mtpa with the rest supplied to the existing customers in Botswana and in the region.

'The new power station design permits it to utilise low quality coal while our high quality product will be sold to outside markets.'

MCM currently supplies coal to companies such as the BMC, BCL and Botash while exports go to countries such as Malawi, Zambia, the DRC and Zimbabwe. Apart from the expansion, MCM is also studying the prospects of opening two new mines not far from the existing mine after the company's prospecting area was increased from 178 square kilometres to 425 square kilometres with an estimated global in-situ mineral resource of about 2.91 billion tonnes of coal.

According to the Bagopi, the huge expansion project which was funded through debt and equity - has also propelled the company to re-brand as it seeks to reposition itself to a major producer and exporter of coal. 'This is huge growth to the point (that) it has made us re-look at some of the processes at the company not only in terms of production but in terms of how we run the business,' he said. 'This is why we are undergoing the process of re-branding and re-positioning the company as a stakeholder that does not only mine the resource but also adds value to the product and exports it.'  MCM is currently in talks with potential buyers in Turkey and the Far East for the supply of coal. Marketing Manager Jonathan Vergeer said although discussions were at a preliminary stage, two ports in Mozambique were being targeted for use as routes to the potential markets under discussion.

Going ahead, Vergeer said with the exploitation of the new resources and the opening of one of the potential two new mines, MCM had the capacity to export as much as 10mtpa, although the existing infrastructure could not support such volumes. It is estimated that with the current infrastructure, Botswana can only export a maximum of 2mtpa of coal.