[miningmx.com] – SOUTH Africa’s Exxaro Resources, one of the country’s largest producers of coal, is to build a 600MW power station in joint venture with France’s GDF SUEZ and will supply the venture with 3.8mtpa of coal from its proposed Thabametsi mine.
The project will be located in South Africa’s Limpopo province, the same district as Grootegeluk, the Exxaro mine that is due to supply coal to Eskom’s 4,750MW Medupi power station. Exxaro said the power installation could be scaled up to 1,200MW.
The development is in terms of a government “determination’ in December 2012 in which it allocated some 2,500MW of coal baseload power as part of the country’s future energy supply between 2014 and 2024. By July, GDF SUEZ submitted its interest in building the power project in terms of its position as an independent power producer.
“We have taken advantage of the opportunities provided from current regulatory developments in South Africa’s mineral and energy sectors to develop a coal mine that can supply new power generating capacity,’ said Sipho Nkosi, CEO of Exxaro Resources.
