Kuyasa Mining: Coal mine plans own power plant

KUYASA Mining, a South African coal producer, plans to offer to build a 600 megawatt power plant at a cost of about $1.7 billion (R20.5bn) in the government’s next procurement round for electricity generation from private companies. Banks along with development-finance institutions would fund the bid by KiPower, the company’s power unit, Ayanda Bam, a director and founder of Kuyasa, said. “They will fund our bid with us being the lead developer,” he said. South Africa would contract 2 500 megawatts of coal-fired projects from Independent Power Producers, or IPPs, the Department of Energy said in an April 16 statement. Indecision over whether to build new power plants more than a decade ago has left Africa’s most-industrialised economy with insufficient power for its needs. Kuyasa plans to locate the plant at its mine near Delmas. Bam said KiPower could have a date in June for when construction of the plant will begin. – Bloomberg