Modern Mining August 2018

COAL

Mmamabula coal project ready to enter construction

north of Gaborone (and 125 km south of Palapye) in the Mmamabula coalfield, which hosts a total resource in excess of a billion tons of high-grade coal and which is the western extension of South Africa’s Waterberg coalfield. The property is accessed by a 20 km gravel road from the A1 asphalt highway linking Gaborone and Francistown. The project is held under a single licence which comprises three separate areas, A, B and C, with B and C extending to the border with South Africa. A neighbouring project is Jindal’s Mmamabula Energy Project (MEP), which it acquired when it purchased Canada’s CIC Energy in 2012. Other companies with assets in the area are Australian junior African Energy, which holds the Mmamabula West project, and Minergy (run by Andre Boje, previously of Wescoal), which is developing the Masama proj- ect on the south-western edge of the coalfield. Outlining the background to Maatla’s coal project, the company’s CEO, Jacques Badenhorst, says that Maatla acquired the licence – which covers a total area of 82 km 2 – in 2015 from a Botswanan company, Waterplus, which remains involved in the project through a 15 % stake in Maatla Energy. “All the drilling required to define a resource had been completed by the time of our acqui-

While Botswana only has one active colliery, Morupule, there are several junior companies that are developing new coal mines that are planned for production either later this year or in 2019. One of these is privately owned Maatla Energy, which is hoping to start construction of its Mmamabula coal mine shortly. It anticipates a 12-month ‘build’ which means that commissioning could take place in the third quarter of next year.

M aatla’s strategy is to develop Mmamabula in two phases. Phase 1 encompasses the construction of a coal mine which will focus on the production of approximately 100 000 tons per month of sized coal (from 140 000 tonnes ROM) for the inland market in South Africa and regionally while Phase 2, which is at least two to three years behind Phase 1, envisages the development of a Gas to Liquids (GTL) business based on the Mmamabula resource. Phase 1 will be undertaken through Maatla’s subsidiary, Maatla Resources, while the ‘ve- hicle’ for Phase 2 will be a second subsidiary known as Maatla Refineries. The Mmamabula project is located 145 km

Seen here are (from left) are Mike Nell (COO), Jacques Badenhorst (CEO) and Dr Mike Seeger (Business Development Director), all of Maatla Energy.

sition of the project” he says. “Since then, we’ve taken it up the value curve, produc- ing a Competent Person’s Report (CPR) in December 2016 and a Phase 1 feasibil- ity study in March 2017. In January this year we completed our Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and we received the environmental go- ahead for the project in April. All the permitting we require is now in place with the exception of the mining licence, which we expect to receive within the next few weeks.” According to the feasibility study, the project – with a life of mine of over 25 years – has very healthy economics. The

38  MODERN MINING  August 2018