Electricity exports create investment opportunity for S Africa

Power generation stakeholders and key industry players are investigating ways of deriving the most benefit from lower coal qualities, says independent mining advisory company Ukwazi senior mining engineer Adriaan Strydom, who tells Mining Weekly that companies are implementing new technologies to generate electricity from lower-quality orebodies. South Africa has a mature coal-mining history, with coal generation capacity and infrastructure already developed across the country; therefore, mining companies now need to revisit how best to use specific orebodies that have been identified as viable for electricity generation, he points out.