28 Sep 2022

Botswana should fully exploit its abundant coal to feed emerging and diverse markets, to grow its economy and create more job opportunities for citizens, says President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi.

   Speaking at the commissioning of Morupule Coal Mine’s (MCM) Motheo Project yesterday, he said a review of the coal market suggested that consumers, mostly in the European and Asian countries, were prepared to pay premium for higher grades of coal.

Dr Masisi noted that currently, Europe and other parts of Asia needed 50 000 to 100 000 tonnes of coal per month, which aggregated to between 10 and 15 million tonnes per annum.

Botswana, he said, should seize the opportune moment which had presented itself.

The President noted that Motheo project would increase the mine’s production capacity  from the current 2.8 to 4.2 million tonnes per annum and that through its newly developed corporate strategy, MCM planned to supply various markets with a total of 7.6 million tonnes annually by the year 2027 which would grow the mine’s annual revenue to P3 billion.

Given the mine’s ambitions, President Masisi said the country was on the right path to unlock its coal potential to meet local energy needs and still supply global markets.

By completing the project as envisioned, ‘the mine has demonstrated that they are aligned to ambitious efforts made by the government to foster and accelerate socio-economic development in Botswana. Botswana’s untapped coal resources are sitting at about 212 billion tonnes, which we must take full advantage of’.

The President acknowledged existence of some challenges such as insufficient logistics and infrastructure which he said must be addressed as a matter of urgency to facilitate the realisation of MCM’s ambitions.

“It is for this reason that, as the government, we are deliberately collaboratively engaging with our neighbouring countries with a view to forging partnerships that can help in the development of transport links to allow for the easy export of our coal using shorter and less costly routes,” said Dr Masisi.

For example, the President said Botswana was looking at the Mmamabula/Lephalale Rail Link Project as a potential enabler to feed the growing coal demand in Southern Africa and beyond.

On another matter, Dr Masisi commended MCM for heeding government’s call for local economic empowerment and citizen economic inclusion.

He noted that MCM had since set up a Citizen Economic Inclusion Programme office where it had set itself a target to create a shared citizen spend value of 50 per cent and support for 3 000 jobs by the year 2027.

Even more commendable, the President said, was the fact that the office had moved with speed to forge partnerships with different stakeholders such as local financial institutions and other commercial entities.

The financial institutions had already pledged a P3 billion access towards funding suppliers in the MCM Supplier Development Programme in the next five years., he said adding that other collaborative initiatives under consideration for downstream coal beneficiation opportunities included construction of an MCM coal lab at BIUST.

He said another opportunity was in the transport and haulage sector as additional coal would have to be delivered across the SADC region, mostly to South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Mozambique. ENDS