Thursday 8 August 2019

Minergy’s Masama Coal Project in Botswana is now fully operational

Minergy's Masama Coal Project in Botswana is now fully operational and producing saleable coal.

The coal mining and trading company owns 100% of the 390-million tonne resource in the Mmambula Coalfield and states it is making "good progress" towards its goal of being listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange.

Minergy claims it has extracted roughly 39,000 tonnes of coal to date and believes there is in excess of 340,000 tonnes are exposed in the pit.

It says more than 2.2 million cubic metres of rock and soil material were removed from the site by July 2019, giving access to the coal beneath, and suggests plant upgrades are still ongoing to improve efficiency and provide consistency in terms of both product quality and size.

The firm has already successfully moved product to power markets in South Africa and Namibia and hopes the monthly volume of saleable coal will rise from around 80,000 to 100,000 tonnes next year.

It notes demand for the product is high as a result of insufficient supply in South Africa.

Morné du Plessis, Minergy CEO, said: “We have come such a long way and are pleased with developments at the mine site.

"We are extremely excited about the future of the project, our ability to supply coal into the region, the highly experienced team responsible for executing the plan, as well as our capacity to contribute towards a viable coal sector in Botswana.”

The UK has gone a record-breaking 1,976 hours without using coal to generate electricity already this year, as it works towards cutting the polluting fuel out of its energy mix.