After recently being awarded a mining licence for its 390 Mt Masama Coal Project in the Mmambula Coalfield in Botswana, owner Minergy Ltd has announced that the mining contract has been awarded to Jarcon, a joint venture between IPP, a South African company, and Giant Plant, a Botswana company. The Build-Own-Operate-Transfer contract for the washing plant has been awarded to Pentalin Processing. Contracts for the provision of site and bush clearing, civil works, power reticulation, water and waste management, road construction and weighbridges are also in various stages of appointment.

The granting of the licence further reduced the risk for any potential investors. “Given that Minergy is set to undertake a primary listing on AIM, the announcement provided the vital key to ensuring project viability, substantially underpinning the investment case. Unfortunately, due to the regulatory delays, the listing has been rescheduled to the first half of 2019.”

CEO Andre Bojé said that both Botswana and Minergy have a significant role to play in fulfilling the increased demand for coal, with 4 Mt of coal exported from South Africa to the African continent in 2016, which is forecast to rise to 38 Mt by 2030. The thermal coal price has also increased 33% over the past 18 months, making it one of the world’s top five highest-performing commodities.