Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi commemorated the commissioning of a new 1.4-million-mt/year (mt/y) coal mine at the state-owned Morupule Coal Mine (MCM), Reuters reported. The new open-cast mine, which will boost MCM’s output by 50% to 4.2 million mt/y, is part of its strategy to supply various markets with a cumulative total of 7.6 million mt/y of coal by 2027.
“Botswana must seize this opportune time which has presented itself to us, to fully exploit this resource to feed the emerging and diverse markets,” Masisi said. Botswana has an estimated 212 billion mt of coal and it wants to become a key coal exporter through Maputo and Walvis Bay.
MCM currently produces 2.8 million mt/y of coal from its underground operations, serving two nearby state-owned power stations with the rest being exported to South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
