PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX- and JSE-listed Resource Generation (Resgen) has taken a major step in progressing its Boikarabelo coal mine, in South Africa's Waterberg region, in Limpopo, by agreeing to terms for the design and supply of a coal handling and preparation plant (CHPP).
The $200-million CHPP would be the largest capital item for the Boikarabelo project, and MD Paul Jury said on Wednesday that the company was completing the final drawings for the plant.
The cost for the CHPP was about $50-million less than earlier estimates, and Jury said that Resgen was in discussions with Danish export credit agency EKF regarding a guarantee to cover over 50% of the CHPP cost.
“This agreement is in line with our plan to raise the capital needed to construct the mine from a variety of sources, including supplier finance, project finance, and the $62.6-million equity entitlement offer completed in October.”
Jury noted that the EKF guarantee, if confirmed, was expected to facilitate raising project finance for the CHPP.
Resgen’s Boikarabelo mine has a probable reserve of 744.8-million tonnes. Stage 1 of the mine development is targeting an initial output of six-million tonnes a year. Production is expected to start in late 2015.