[miningmx.com] – A DISPUTE about liberalising access to South Africa’s coal export sector rumbled on with Brian Molefe, CEO of Transnet, saying that the large, diversified miners underpaid junior coal miners for their material.
In an article by BDLive, Molefe was quoted to have said that BHP Billiton took advantage of small, black-owned coal miners pushing them on price as it was their only means of accessing the export market.
Molefe’s comments come after he criticised last week BHP Billiton, a shareholder in Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT), for refusing to allow access to the terminal’s 91 million tonnes/year capacity to small junior miners.
He had requested that BHP Billiton relinquish 1 million tonnes of export entitlement through RBCT and accused it of pursuing its own selfish ends. BHP Billiton took the comments to be a critique of its empowerment credentials.
Molefe also said that RBCT shareholders, which include Anglo Thermal Coal and GlencoreXstrata, had reneged on a compact with the state as the land on which the terminal was built was leased to it by government.
RBCT chairman Mike Teke, said last week that the terminal was not a “state asset” as its shareholders had paid for the terminal’s construction ploughing billions of rands into its construction over the years.
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