Despite significant coal-mining capacity recently discovered in the Southern African region, according to senior coal analysts at the annual Role of Coal conference, held in Johannesburg this month, South Africa is still top of the pile when it comes to coal exports.

At the conference, John Hollaway & Associates MD John Hollaway painted a picture of the regional coal basin map outside of South Africa.

He reports that Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Botswana hold the largest regional coal basins outside South Africa.

Cumulatively, the countries can boast a coal resource of about 53,5-billion tons. Angola has five-billion tons of mainly poor-quality lignite coal, while the next sizable resource is held by Tanzania, which holds one-billion tons.

“Although there have been significant coal discoveries in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Botswana, the coal is of poor quality and is not fit for export. South Africa still sits at the top of the coal export chain, for the time being,” said Hollaway.

Although Hollaway is of the view that the coal found in the region is of poor export quality, there has still been some interest shown.

Australian coal-mining company Riversdale Mining recently started mining at its Zambeze project, near Tete, in western Mozambique. The project has generated significant interest in that there is international demand for the coal from the mine. Owing to poor infrastructure in the region, Riversdale announced that it would be barging the coal down the Zambezi to the river mouth at Chinde, where the coal can be exported.

Developer of the Mmamabula energy project Botswana CIC Energy is in the process of compiling a feasibility study into building a railway line from the project, in southern Botswana, to Walvis Bay, in Namibia, to tap into the lucrative European and South American energy markets.

Coal plays an important role when it comes to the economic development of the region. With limited funding to build electricity networks that are reliant on renewable-energy sources, many power stations in the region are still baseload power stations that are reliant on coal supply. There is also a significant inter- national demand for the type of high-quality coal that is typically found in South Africa. This demand is particularly high in the Asian market.