Transnet will boost capacity to export coal

Cape Town 160304- Deputy Director General of Mineral Resources Mosa Mabuza addressing delegates at the South African Coal exports Conference at Westin Hotel. Picture Cindy Waxa.Reporter Dineo/Business Report

Cape Town 160304- Deputy Director General of Mineral Resources Mosa Mabuza addressing delegates at the South African Coal exports Conference at Westin Hotel. Picture Cindy Waxa.Reporter Dineo/Business Report

Published Feb 5, 2016

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Johannesburg - Transport and freight logistics parastatal Transnet will deliver on its promise to help junior coal producers access export markets soon.

Divyesh Kalan, the general manager for Transnet’s commercial unit, told about 120 delegates comprising traders, coal producers and mining specialists at the IHS Energy South African Coal Exports Conference in Cape Town yesterday that the utility planned to boost capacity to export coal.

“Transnet intends to open 4 million tons of export capacity to junior coal miners,” Kalan said, without giving details.

“We know that 28 million tons have been allocated to juniors in the past, but that has not materialised as some of the companies had been diluted.”

Kalan’s announcement comes three years after former Transnet boss Brian Molefe said the utility would build a second terminal to help junior mining companies.

Mike Fraser, South32’s president and chief operating officer in the Africa region, told the conference that the mining industry needed sound fiscal and monetary policies to reduce fiscal risks and to strengthen the financial position of the country.

“For example in terms of economic empowerment the Department of Mineral Resources has a 26 percent black ownership target and Eskom has a 50 plus 1 percent ownership target,” Fraser said.

Musa Mabuza, the Department of Mineral Resources deputy director-general for mineral policy and promotion, said the government was prioritising the development of a policy on coal.

“Last year this time, the technical teams from business, government and organised labour kick-started the coal policy development, which subsequently subsided,” he said.

“Given the importance of coal to our nation, we have reprioritised the development of the coal policy. It is intended for finalisation in the first half of the current calendar year.”

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Chamber of Mines chief executive Roger Baxter, who also spoke at the conference, said that more than half of South Africa’s development could be achieved if the mining environment was improved.

Baxter said the coal industry was the biggest contributor to mining revenue and employed 70 000 people. He said the industry was being squeezed as the coal price had declined 60 percent since 2012. He added empowerment legislation was one of the challenges facing the industry.

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