Mmamabula Coal Mine

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Mmamabula Coal Mine is a proposed coal mine in Francistown, North-East, Botswana.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Mmamabula Coal Mine	Francistown, North-East, Botswana	-23.609295, 26.774952 (approximate)

The map below shows the approximate location of the coal mine:

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Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Project Type	Opening Year	Closing Year
Proposed	Construction	New	2024	–

Table 3: Operation details

Note: The asterisk (*) signifies that the value is a GEM estimated figure.

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
1	–	–	Underground & Surface	Mixed	43	60*	*

Table 4: Coal resources and destination

Total Reserves (Mt)	Year of Total Reserves Recorded	Total Resources (Mt)	Coalfield	Coal Type	Coal Grade	Primary Consumer/ Destination
82	2019	2400	Mmamabula	Bituminous	Thermal	Mmamabula Energy Project

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
Maatla Resources	Maatla Resources [100%]	Botswana, India

Note: The above section was automatically generated and is based on data from the Global Coal Mine Tracker April 2024 release and the September supplement.

Background

The Mmamabula coal mine is a proposed mine, owned by Maatla Resources, designed to produce 1.2 million tonnes per annum, near Gaborone and Francistown, Botswana.

The coalfield is the site of a number of proposed coal-fired power stations that would be fuelled by the coal: CIC Coal to Hydrocarbons Project, CIC Domestic Power Project, and Mmamabula Energy Project.

Construction of the project was scheduled to begin in 2022. The Mmamabula coalfield is considered to be a western extension of the Waterberg Coalfield in the Ellisras Basin in South Africa, which contains about 40% of South Africa's coal resources. The portions of the coalfield for which CIC Energy held licences are estimated to have 2.4 billion tonnes of thermal coal. Deposits were roughly 360 million tonnes in the Central block, 643 million tonnes in the Western block, and 1,392 million tonnes in the Eastern block. The South block, which lies on both sides of the road and rail corridor, is estimated to hold another 311 tonnes of coal.

The Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources put up the Mmamabula South and Central blocks for tender in June 2012, once CIC's license was up for renewal. The blocks held about 670 million tonnes of coal. Bids would be evaluated in part on how quickly the bidder would be able to start exploiting the coal field.

However, in August 2012 the government decided to renew CIC's retention license for the central block, with about 361 million tonnes of coal. A week later the Competition Authority approved a proposed takeover of CIC Energy by Jindal Steel and Power of the Jindal Group, which wants large supplies of coal for its Indian steel plants.

In September 2012 it was announced that Jindal Steel and Power was completing a US$116 million purchase of CIC Energy, acquiring its rights in the Mmamabula coalfield. Jindal said it planned to develop a coal mine and a 300-MW power plant, the CIC Domestic Power Project, as well as coal-to-liquids through the CIC Coal to Hydrocarbons Project. It would also develop coal exports from the field, possibly via rail to Mozambique. The deal was conditional on approval by the Minister of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources.

In June 2014 global mining company Anglo American bid for the prospecting licenses of Mmamabula South and Central blocks, which have an estimated 700 million tonnes of coal. The two blocks sit adjacent to the 2.4 billion tonne Mmamabula East coalfields, which was bought by the Jindal group from CIC Energy in 2014 in a P860 million deal.

In April 2015 Jindal said it planned to offload 74 percent of the energy and coal mine project to South Africa’s Glendal Trading. The companies say there are potentially nine mines on the 2.7 million Mmamabula Energy Project (MEP) resources, with six of them earmarked to be underground and three open casts.

In April 2017 it was reported that Jindal had shelved initial plans to offload 74% of its company to South Africa’s Glendal Trading.

In April 2018, Maatla Resources submitted an Environmental Impact Assessment for the Mmamabula coal mine. It took some time for the project to be fully permitted, but in February 2021, the Botswana government awarded Maatla with a 25-year license to mine three coal rich areas at its Mmamabula project. One reason for the delay was that the company had not yet attained an equity capability of 30% of the project’s development costs, which has to be demonstrated by the developer in accordance with Section 30 of the Mines and Minerals Act of Botswana. Another was the COVID-19 pandemic.

In its first phase, Maatla hopes to produce 100,000 tonnes of saleable product from Mmamabula per month with the intention to sell into the inland sized coal market in neighboring South Africa. In the second phase, production is planned to increase to 300-400,000 tonnes per month. Maatla expects to begin construction by mid-2021, begin production 12 months after breaking ground, and to ramp up to full production within six months thereafter. According to Maatla, this timeline places production commencement in Q2/3 of 2023.

• Operator: Maatla Energy
• Owner: Maatla Resources
• Location: near Gaborone and Francistown, Botswana
• GPS Coordinates: -23.609295, 26.774952 (approximate)
• Mine Status: Proposed
• Production: 1.2 million tonnes per annum
• Total Resource:
• Mineable Reserves: 90 million tonnes
• Coal Type: Thermal "high grade"
• Mine Size: 43 km2<ref name=miningweekly /ref>
• Mine Type:
• Start Year: 2023
• Source of Funding:

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Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of world coal mines, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Mine Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.