Modern Mining July 2017

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MODERN MINING

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July 2017

COUNTRY FOCUS:

BOTSWANA

ccording to Clegg, Shumba

will fast-track Mabesekwa

into operation with the target

for first coal production being

the second half of next year.

“The project is ‘shovel ready’ and we’re very

confident that we can supply the coal it pro-

duces into the Southern African market,” he

says. “We’re also planning to establish an In-

Botswana has massive coal resources but none of the current

generation of coal explorers in the country has yet managed

to get into production, in part because of the logistical

challenges of getting coal to market from the land-

locked country. Shumba Energy, which has a portfolio

of advanced projects in Botswana with a total coal

inventory of 4,5 billion tonnes, is intending to break the

pattern with its fully permitted Mabesekwa project,

as its Chairman, Alan Clegg, recently explained to

Modern Mining

in an interview on the sidelines of the

Botswana Resource Sector Conference in Gaborone.

Alan Clegg pictured on the Shumba

Energy stand at the Botswana

Resource Sector Conference.

Coal specimen from the Sechaba project. The estimated

SAMREC-compliant resource is 571 Mt GTIS (gross tons

in situ).

Shumba

plans to fast-track

Mabesekwa

into production

dependent Power Producer (IPP) operation

further down the line, which would see an

initial 300 MW power plant using circulating

fluidised bed technology being built between 5

and 6 km from the coal mine mouth.

“The idea is that this would supply power

into the South African market and we have,

in fact, formally registered our intent to put

in a bid to the Southern African Power Pool

and related authorities in terms of the Coal

Border Power Procurement Programme which

is designed to secure up to 3 750 MW of power

from IPPs. The results of this are still pending.

In addition, the project has been short-listed

in the Botswana government’s Greenfield Coal

Baseload IPP Programme.” He adds that devel-

opment of Mabesekwa has not been premised

on the conclusion of IPP agreements and that

its development as a standalone mining opera-

tion is perfectly feasible.

Located 60 km south-west of Francistown

(and close to the Sese project of African Energy

Resources) in an area originally drilled by

Shell decades ago, Mabesekwa was acquired