JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – An in-principle agreement has been reached for the Waterberg Coal Project (WCP), in Limpopo, to use treated water from the Paarl water treatment plant, Firestone Energy reported on Monday.
In a quarterly update to shareholders, the London-listed group said that following discussions with the Lephalale municipality, a memorandum of understanding had been tabled between WCP’s holder of the rights, titles and interests, Sekoko Coal, and the municipality.
The agreement allowed Sekoko, which would become the operator of the plant, to use all treated water, barring that currently contracted by the municipality to third parties, from the ten-million-litre-a-day plant.
Further, talks surrounding capacity at ports continued, with Firestone Energy expecting a formal contract to be executed once final arrangements with offtaking parties had been completed and the volumes for the first five years confirmed.
During the quarter to December, all the partners in the WCP entered discussions with Grindrod Terminals regarding port allocation at the Richards Bay Coal Terminal, in KwaZulu-Natal, for confirmation of their capacity for the handling and loading of the project’s coal.
Negotiations were proceeding on the final volumes, timeline and contracted price.
Meanwhile, during the quarter under review, the WCP developers entered discussions with certain banks to secure funding for the proposed development of a standalone export project, located in the south of the WCP area.
A technical due diligence was currently being compiled by independent technical experts Snowden Group so that a draft financing term sheet could also be tendered for during the March quarter.