Morupule plans country�s biggest coal mine
Mbongeni Mguni | Friday August 12, 2016 18:00
When plans were originally made public in 2014, MCM was aiming for a one million tonne open cast mine to support the 300MW expansion of Morupule B, known as “Units 5 & 6”.
At its new capacity, the open cast mine will be the country’s biggest coal mine, dwarfing Morupule’s existing underground mine, which has a capacity of 3.2 million tonnes per annum.
The new mine will leverage off Morupule’s vast holdings in the Central District, which are estimated at 2.9 billion tonnes.
This week, the mine’s chief communications officer, Bontle Maruatona told BusinessWeek that the plans had been upgraded to cater for medium to long-term projects.
“It is meant to cater for medium to long term expansion projects like Units 7 & 8 as well as to supply local and export markets as they become available,” she said.
Morupule B Units 7 & 8 is another 300MW expansion of the existing power station whose development the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources has already directly appointed a joint venture between two South Korean firms. Morupule B Units 5 & 6 are being developed by a joint venture between Japanese and South Korean companies.
MCM’s new open cast mine will be expected to enter into supply contracts with the Asian firms engaged for the expansions, with terms hammered out for pricing and other conditions. It is expected that the contracts could be as long as 30 years.
Maruatona said while the supply contract for Units 7 & 8 had not been awarded, MCM was at the ready.
“Unit 7 & 8 is still at planning stage and the government has not awarded it as yet. Notwithstanding that, MCM has the capacity and capability to supply both units either from the same mine. Studies are currently ongoing to determine how best to optimise supplies to these units,” she said.
The planned units at Morupule B, the first of which are due to kick in by 2020, will take the country securely past electricity self sufficiency, energy ministry officials have said.
The units will be on top of the original 600MW capacity at Morupule B, the 120MW due from the resurrected Morupule A power station and a separate 300MW “greenfield” plant whose tender is yet to be finalised.Government expects that with the projects, the country will become a net exporter of electricity by 2019.