Botswana coal miner to open new open pit mine in 2021
Botswana’s state-owned Morupule Coal Mine (MCM) will boost annual output by 35% to 3.8 million tonnes a year in 2021 after the completion of a new open cast mine under construction in the central region of Botswana.
MCM presently produces 2.8 million tonnes of coal yearly from its underground operations, feeding two nearby power stations with some of the output being exported to South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
Morupule Coal Mine is located on the outskirts of Palapye, Botswana, along the Serowe-Palapye road. MCM started production in 1973 as an Anglo American Corporation subsidiary. The total inferred inventory coal within the MCM mining lease area is approximately 12 billion tonnes. At current mining rates, MCM has +1,000 years of reserves.
Despite the country’s estimated 212 billion tonnes of coal resources, MCM was its only operating coal mine until privately owned Minergy commissioned a new mine in 2019 with an annual capacity of 1.2 million tonnes.
