BOTSWANA COAL TO THE SEA
Posted on 12 March 2009 by Railways Africa Editor
The proposed new railway from Botswana to the Namibian coast may alleviate problems with South Africa’s “constipated” coal line to Richards Bay, says the Financial Mail: “Southern African coal exporters may have a remedy coming in the form of a new line from the coalfields of southern Botswana and western Limpopo to Walvis Bay in Namibia. Chief operating officer of CIC Energy’s mining unit Eddie Scholtz says a trans-Kalahari line might make sense. The company, building a coal mine and power station in Botswana, has been conducting a study with the Botswana government over the past 10 months to ascertain the feasibility of a coal line linking the Mmamabula coal deposits to Atlantic markets, mainly Europe. The Namibian government is also involved. Given the line would be 1,500km long, this would make it, as Scholtz says, a ‘big, ambitious project’,.. Considering it would cost an estimated $US3m-4m per kilometre means a total cost of $4.5bn-6bn for the rail line. That’s excluding rolling stock. Scholtz, previously MD of Ingwe Colliery (now called BHP Billiton Energy Coal SA) says CIC has looked at a 22Mt/year line. But a 50 Mt/year line would provide economies of scale, making it as cost competitive as the line from Ermelo to the Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) – the biggest single coal terminal in the world. RBCT is undergoing an expansion that will lift its capacity to 91 Mt/year by the end of the year. CIC is also in talks with Exxaro Resources about the line, and the two have signed a non disclosure agreement.”
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