Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi on Wednesday commissioned a new 1.4 million coal mine tons yearly at the state-owned Morupule Coal Mine (MCM).
The new mine seeks to increase exports after the demand for the fuel boomed since the start of the war in Ukraine according to a Reuters report.
Despite the country’s estimated 212 billion tons of coal resources, MCM was its only operating mine until Minergy Ltd commissioned a new one in 2019 with an annual capacity of 1.2 million tons.
But many European and Asian countries are scrambling for alternative sources of fuel given the global energy crisis, and Botswana wants to become a key coal producer having already increased sea-borne exports in 2022 through Maputo and Walvis Bay.
Speaking during the commissioning of the mine, President Masisi said the country must take advantage of the opportunity the global energy crisis has presented the country.
Masisi said, “Botswana must seize this opportune time which has presented itself to us, to fully exploit this resource to feed the emerging and diverse markets”.
The new open cast mine, which will boost MCM’s output by 50% to 4.2 million tons per annum, is part of its strategy to supply various markets with a cumulative total of 7.6 million tons of coal a year by 2027, in turn growing revenue to 3 billion pula ($222.6 million) from the 1 billion expected in 2023.
