31 Oct 2022

The Morupule Coal Mine (MCM) 2022-2027 corporate strategy will allow the organisation to identify and develop partnerships and alliances that can help to build distribution and integrated channels for logistics and market access.

One of the export market bottlenecks experienced by the mine emanates from Botswana‘s landlocked status which is a hindrance to fluent play in  international markets.

Speaking at the strategy’s launch on Friday, MCM board chairman, Mr Bonny Matshediso said the logistics of getting coal to international markets had always been compromised necessitating a new strategy.

"Operational efficiency is another factor which we have considered as a matter of priority as we look into our capacity to deliver on our business expectations. We want to ensure that we create an enabling function that can help us to enhance our productivity around time and cost," said Mr Matshediso.

To ensure operational excellence,  MCM planned to adopt digitalisation and integration that would allow it to leverage on technology and enable quick decision making, he said.

The aim, Mr Matshediso said, was to be a multi-product, globally competitive, low-cost producer of high-quality coal products with the agility to service diverse markets and customers.

"We intend to ramp our production to 7.6 billion tonnes of coal per annum by 2027 and in the process hoping to return over P3 billion worth of revenues to the shareholder," he said.

 The MCM chairman said to win, the mine must first establish itself as a global partner of choice in coal mining by re-calibrating and making the necessary adjustments.

He said the company  was targeting the global market as a whole, over and above the current Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe markets.

With partners such as Botswana Oil and BIUST, Mr Matshediso said the mine would intensify research and development to come up with environmentally-friendly and value adding innovations to make extensive use of the billions of tonnes of coal reserves Botswana was endowed with.

He said the strategy also expressed an expansive desire to target business success through a dedicated human capital development initiative aimed at enhancing operational efficiency and improving productivity.

Another element, Mr Matshediso said,  was the heeding of government's call to come up with initiatives to enable Batswana to take part in the mine’s economic activities.

For his part, MCM chief executive officer, Mr Edwin Elias said the strategy was expected to propel the mine beyond just coal for energy to beneficiation and value addition.

“There has been great build-up towards the launch of this strategy, and I am confident that once we roll it out, a lot of motion would have taken traction to make it easy for us to sail through this new and uncharted path," he said. 

He revealed that MCM had already started with the delivery of over 60 000 tonnes out of the 170 000 tonnes of coal destined for overseas markets through Maputo, Mozambique.

Mr Elias said MCM management would marshal all resources to ensure that the new strategy was fully resourced to ensure set targets were met.At the centre of the strategy was the intent to make people the primary drivers of the mine’s operational excellence, said the MCM chief. ends