African Energy Resources says an application for a mining licence for the first 300MW Sese Integrated Power Project has been submitted to the Department of Mines in Botswana.
The Botswana Stock Exchange listed company revealed that the mining licence application covers enough coal to fuel a 300MW power station for 35 years and enough land to locate the mine, power station and all necessary infrastructures.
“This licence area has been determined to contain enough suitable coal to fuel a 300MW power station for 35 years (25 years plus a 40% margin), along with enough land to the east of the coal deposit for the location of the 300MW power station and all associated infrastructure,” it said.
“The area selection was based on an energy schedule derived from the recently completed first phase of a definitive feasibility study (‘DFS’).”
The company said the DFS covers the mining component of a fully integrated 300MW power station and coal mine. An area suitable for another mining licence application for a second 300MW power station and mine complex can be added to the south in due course. In both cases the power station footings can be constructed on bedrock that does not contain coal.
African Energy owns four prospecting licences for coal in Botswana and it is currently developing a series of power station projects at the Sese and Mmamantswe projects.
The projects include an integrated power project at Sese (with ACWA Power), which is being developed for the Botswana government’s 300MW Greenfield tender, an additional 300MW integrated power project at Sese is being developed as a potential source of power for Zambia’s state utility ZESCO.
African Energy and ACWA Power have also registered a 300MW integrated power project at Sese into South Africa’s coal baseload IPP procurement programme and three 600MW integrated power projects at Mmamantswe have been registered into South Africa’s coal baseload IPP procurement programme.
The company also revealed that an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) and Environmental Management Plan (EMP) were submitted for the first 300MW Sese Integrated Power Project in June.
It added that an application for surface rights over a large portion of Sese Block‐C and a multi‐functional access corridor to the main highway has been approved. “This provides unimpeded access to enough coal and land for the development of multiple 300MW integrated power projects.”
The company has also been granted access to the railway easement owned by Botswana Railways that runs along the A1 highway between Shashe Dam (the water source for the project) and the access corridor. It has also been given permission to bury a water pipeline in the rail easement, connecting Shashe Dam with the project access corridor. Approval for the extraction of up to 2.8GL water per year from Shashe Dam has been granted to the Company. Each 300MW integrated power project requires 1.0 to 1.4 GL water per year.
A bidders’ workshop for the 300MW Brownfield tender was held in Gaborone on 14th August with the Request for Proposals (RFP) to be released shortly. A similar workshop and RFP release for Greenfield bidders is expected after the Brownfield RFP
