Aviva, which is listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange, has a 90-percent interest in the Mmamantswe Project in eastern Botswana - an indicated 1.3 billion tonne resource. The company plans to develop an initial 1 000 MW power station using four-and-a-half million tonnes of coal per annum. In finalising various technical requirements for the project, Aviva last year began hunting for off-takers for the Mmamantswe Project. Last October, Eskom unconditionally qualified Aviva to submit a bid for the South African utility company's Independent Power Producer (IPP) Programme. However, to qualify for the IPP programme, which involves the supply of up to 4, 500 MW, producers had to be located in South Africa.
Mmamantswe is located in eastern Botswana, sitting on the same coal basin that houses the Grootegeluk Coal Mine and Matimba Power Station across the border in South Africa. The Mmamantswe tenement is positioned between the major infrastructure corridor of Botswana and the South African border with rail, power and highway links to Gaborone and South Africa passing within 30 kilometres of the coal deposit.
