The conference, with the theme: "Botswana at the dawn of ecological coalbased industrialisation", comes at a time when the country is preparing to mine the Mmamabula coal deposits projected to be the next main energy source for the entire Southern African region.
The Mmamabula Energy Project, a planned coalmine and a power plant with a proposed capacity of between 2100-MW and 2400-MW, is aimed at initially exporting power to South Africa.
The Department of Mines and the Department of Geological Survey and Energy Affairs Division of the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources are hosting the conference in conjunction with Fossil Fuel Foundation for Africa (FFFA), a South African-based company.
Information supplied by conference facilitator/ representative Heather Moon, indicates that more than 20 companies from India, Australia, the United Kingdom (UK), and within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) will be taking part in this first ever regional conference on coal utilisation, with half of them coming from South Africa.
According to Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources' acting Permanent Secretary Kgomotso Abi, the two-day talks will offer an opportunity for the more than 200 participants to gain first hand information on Botswana's vast coal potential.
"It will give insights for those seeking business opportunities as well as the scientific community, on matters relating to coal bed methane. The conference offers invaluable opportunity to explore the resources endowment, exploration, mining, energy and coal based industrialisation potential."
"Botswana has vast coal resources estimated at over 200, 000 mega tonnes. The resources are grossly under-exploited with a production of less than 1 million tonnes a year. With the impending power crisis in the SADC region, the use of Botswana coal resources to meet both the national and regional energy requirements have become imperative", he went on, adding that "internationally, and regionally, very little is known about the coal resources of Botswana," he said.
Abi said of the more than 15 known coal fields that Botswana currently has only one, the Morupule coal field, is being exploited, adding that even in Morupule the level of exploitation is low.
The Acting Permanent Secretary said Botswana could export coal to India, South Korea and China where demands for the resource continue to rise.
Abi said coal resources have the potential to trigger industrialisation, and tens of thousands of jobs, just as it did for England more than 200 years ago. "In Britain coal was a catalyst for industrial development, rapid economic growth, social upliftment, and national prosperity''. He added that the current Botswana economy is dependent on diamonds and that coal offers an alternative route to swift industrialisation.
"Coal based ecological industrialisation provides a strategic model for rapid GDP growth, socio-economic upliftment, job and wealth creation, facilitating poverty elimination that would be the model for Africa and the economic independence of the continent," Abi said.
The mining company for the Mmamabula coal, CIC Energy, is the sponsor of the conference. Blessed Chitambira, principal engineer in the Department of Mines says the conference, to be facilitated by South Africa-based Fossil Fuel Foundation in Africa, will attract participating potential investors from various parts of the world. He said the objective of the conference is to put the coal resources of the country in the map to provide development of coal mining activities in Botswana and the development of coal bed methane.
" We will be discussing how the potential investors can develop the coal resources in the most beneficial way," Chitambira said. The principal engineer in the mines department also said the main purpose of the conference is to generate interest and knowledge about coal and coal bed methane. "The emphasis will be on geological environment in Botswana, prospecting landscape for coal, and coal bed methane, current and future prospects in coal mining, energy utilisation, coal- based industrialisation", he said in a telephone interview.
Chitambira said the conference is targeting investors in fossil fuel and energy, coal-based products, buyers of coal, coal and energy specialists, researchers, mining experts, as well as environmentalists.
