Dar clears firms to mine coal, build power plant

Tourists at the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

 

By KENNEDY SENELWA, TEA Special Correspondent

In Summary

• A preliminary definitive mining feasibility study by Kibo Mining Plc, which owns the field, shows that it can produce 120,000 tonnes of coal monthly.
• Tanzania plans to raise power output from 1,583MW in April this year to 10,000MW by 2025.
• Kibo and East-West Power Co Ltd of Korea signed a memorandum in July 2013 to develop the power plant.

The Rukwa field in southwestern Tanzania has coal resources for a power plant that will inject 300MW to the national grid.

A preliminary definitive mining feasibility study by Kibo Mining Plc, which owns the field, shows that it can produce 120,000 tonnes of coal monthly.

Kibo’s chief executive officer Louis Coetzee said the Rukwa power plant, which is expected to cost between $500 million and $700 million, will require 28.8 million tonnes of coal over 20 years — which is 48 per cent of the 60 million tonnes in the field.

READ: Kibo picks financial adviser for Tanzania power project

Tanzania plans to raise power output from 1,583MW in April this year to 10,000MW by 2025.

Kibo and East-West Power Co Ltd of Korea signed a memorandum in July 2013 to develop the power plant. The project aligns Kibo’s interests with the Tanzanian government’s initiative to boost power production.

The government is planning to build the western power line between Mbeya and Sumbawanga towns, with a transmission capacity of 400kV. It is expected to be complete in 2016.

The transmission line will link the existing and future generation fields in south and southwest Tanzania to power demand centres in Mwanza and Arusha regions in the north.

The line will pass near Edenville Energy’s Rukwa field. Edenville has been cleared to begin mining of coal for power generation and other industrial applications near Lake Rukwa.

Its subsidiary, Edenville International Tanzania Ltd, has been certified to start mining coal deposits in Namwele and Mkomolo.

Edenville plans to build a power plant at its Rukwa coal field which has 173 million tonnes of resources and is identifying investors who will participate in the project near Sumbawanga town in south western Tanzania.