Difficult-to-understand Moz coal geology resulting in lost opportunities
The geology of coal deposits in Mozambique is more difficult to understand than South Africa’s Waterberg coalfield’s, says independent consulting geologist Gerhard Esterhuizen, explaining that this is the reason why “opportunities are often lost” by the many companies with varying degrees of geological knowledge and skills that have entered the coal exploration business in the south-east African country.
He told a Fossil Fuel Foundation conference focusing on solid fossil fuels in Southern Africa and Madagascar, held in Johannesburg earlier this month: “Competent personnel must be employed to engage in exploration programmes, which is the single most important challenge faced by many [coal exploration] companies in the area today.”
He added that the critical success factor in ensuring a thorough understanding of deposits and subsequently exploiting their full potential was proper geological knowledge..
Esterhuizen stated that exploration companies also had to deal with other problems, including poorly defined business plans, unclear objectives and standards for work performance, and a lack of standard operating procedures and adequately skilled personnel.
He noted that there were 11 primary coal zones in Mozambique, with secondary and tertiary zones within the primary zone. He further explained that there were alternating bands of coal and noncoal elements, as well as massive vitrinite layers with differing particle size distribution in Mozambique.
“The zones are often incorrectly identified and incorrect geophysical data is often logged. Inconsistent sample intervals and inadequate and incomplete recording of data are also challenges.”
The best-explored area was in and around the town of Moatize, where the geology of the coal was relatively well understood, but new entrants to the market had to investigate unknown coal deposits to the north and west of Moatize, Esterhuizen added.
The northern and southern shores of Lake Cahora Bassa and the area south of the Zambezi river, between the dam wall and Tete province, have become the main focus for exploration.
“Many companies have failed to appropriately identify the unique coal geological characteristics in this area, which differ significantly from the coal in Moatize. The correct correlation of the main zones and the subzones, as well as the sample intervals, is not consistent in many aspects and the preparation of the sample material for washability testing is technically not appropriate,” he said.
Esterhuizen stated that the conventional and commonly used method – crushing the material to a specific top size, screening out the fine-particle-size coal and then performing washability testing – is generally not the best procedure to employ, stating that companies should rather use the drop shatter method.
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