Company Announcement - “We are pleased to have Andre on board. His expertise and knowledge of the coal market is vast and we believe that he will add tremendous value to our southern African investment projects,” says Claude de Bruin, Executive Director of Minergy.  Bojé is no stranger to the coal market, having acquired over two decades of experience in the South African coal industry. An accountant by training, he co-founded the coal trading company Chandler Coal (Pty) Ltd in 1997 and after a period of exponential growth, listed the company on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange as Wescoal Holdings Limited where he continued as CEO until 2015. Today Wescoal is a leading junior coal mining and trading company in Southern Africa.

“I am pleased to be joining Minergy as the projects offer vast potential, ranging from supplying the coal merchant market and regional power generators to potential exports to Europe, Asia and India. In addition, the company is poised to explore other investment opportunities in southern Africa and I am keen to impart my knowledge to the projects and take Minergy forward,” says Bojé.
In a press release issued by Minergy in January 2016, the company indicated that its Masama project is a unique, high-quality coal asset that can be mined at low cost and low risk. It is strategically-located near to existing infrastructure and markets for its coal, and has a reported 2.8 billion tonne export-quality coal deposit, which is minable through open-cast extraction. The project covers about 700 square kilometres, and is situated in Botswana’s premier Mmamabula Coalfield.

The company has adopted a three-pronged approach to this vast asset. One option is to undertake open-cast mining and support the regional merchant market, which is estimated to be in the region of 16 million tonnes per annum. The second is to supply regional power utilities as many countries on the continent begin to drive self-sufficiency in the production of electricity. Furthermore there is an opportunity to export high-quality coal to Europe, Asia and India where Minergy believes that the expansion of the middle class is a major driver of long-term global energy demand growth.

“Regardless of the energy mix, more of every kind of energy will need to be harnessed as efficiently and responsibly as possible as millions of people are pulled out of poverty. There is no doubt that the demand for energy will not dissipate, and high quality energy assets such as Masama will play a key role,” adds de Bruin. “The coal market is one that I know extremely well. My goal is to keep Minergy top of mind and to extract value from an asset which has all the right attributes,” concludes Bojé.