New 10m tonne coal railway construction set for 2021

The long-awaited railway line is expected to open up a higher capacity, heavy-duty coal export line to South Africa, an option that in previous years has stymied several projects on the eastern coalfields. With about 60 kilometres dividing Mmamabula and Lephalale in South Africa’s Limpopo Province, the railway line will be shorter than the current link and will provide a gateway to the sea through both Richards Bay and Mozambique. Exploitation of Botswana’s estimated 200 billion tonnes of coal has largely been limited by the lack of a viable coal export route, forcing the few developers currently active to focus on power generation and local sales.

At present, only Morupule Coal Mine is utilising the existing rail capacity, while another producer, Minergy expects to send out its first coal within weeks from its Masama Coal Mine.