July 2014
MODERN MINING
31
EVENTS
the Jacadigo Group of Brazil (around 30 billion
tonnes at 20-25 % Fe).
He said current drilling on the Xaudum proj-
ect at Block 1 represented simply ‘the tip of the
iceberg’ and he told delegates that Tsodilo’s
exploration target was 5 to 7 billion tonnes
at 15 to 40 % Fe. He noted that the average
grade of all mineralised drill intersections was
29,4 % Fe and that all mineralised units were
capable of producing a premium grade magne-
titite product of plus 68 % Fe.
Looking ahead, Jeffcoate said a maiden
NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource was
imminent and that the next phase of drill-
ing would target Block 2 and would start in
Q3 2014. Summing up, he said Xaudum was
potentially a megaproject with a possible plus
50-year mine life, although he acknowledged
that transport infrastructure – given the remote
location of the project – could be a challenge
to development.
Coal, of course, always features strongly at
the conference and several speakers presented
on Botswana’s coal resources, including Dr
Frazer Tabeart of African Energy, Mark Major of
Hodges Resources, and Mashale Phumaphi of
Shumba Coal. Both African Energy and Hodges
are headquartered in Australia while Shumba
is listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange and
is controlled by nationals of Botswana. African
Energy has carved out probably the biggest
single position in Botswana’s coal sector, with
its projects (Sese and Sese West, Mmamabula
West and Mmamantswe) hosting a total
resource of 8,7 billion tonnes of thermal coal.
Hodges, for its part, is developing the 2,45 bil-
lion tonne Morupule South project to the south
of Debswana’s operational Morupule colliery
while Shumba’s focus is the 1 billion tonne
Sechaba project just to the north of Morupule.
All three companies are looking at various
options to develop their projects, with African
Energy appearing to be the most advanced. It
has formed a joint venture with Saudi com-
pany ACWA Power International to develop a
coal mine at Sese south of Francistown and bid
for Botswana’s upcoming 300 MW greenfield
power project, has identified an opportunity
to supply power to the Zambian Copperbelt,
is looking at an integrated mine and power
project at Mmamantswe to export power to
South Africa (Mmamantswe is less than 20 km
from the border with South Africa) and is also
pursuing various thermal coal export options.
The company is nothing if not proactive and
in November 2012 even ran a trial export train
loaded with 1 600 t of Sese coal through to
Maputo as ‘proof of concept’.
For as long as the Botswana Resource Sector
Conference has been running (11 years), speak-
ers at the conference having been talking about
the potential of Botswana’s vast coal resource.
Progress thus far has been slow, with the lack
of suitable transport infrastructure being the
single biggest impediment to development,
but one senses that the situation is chang-
ing and that breakthroughs could soon be
made. Multiple rail and port options to export
Botswana’s coal are in various stages of plan-
ning and a key milestone was passed earlier
this year with the signing of a bilateral agree-
ment between the governments of Namibia
and Botswana for the construction of the Trans
Kalahari Railway and an associated 65 Mt/a
coal terminal at Walvis Bay. Hopefully by the
time the next conference comes round, the
various initiatives to unlock Botswana’s coal
resources will have made substantial progress
and speakers at the event will finally be able to
give delegates good news about actual project
development on the ground.
Report by Arthur Tassell
Two diamond rigs belong-
ing to Tsodilo drilling on the
magnetite at the Xaudum
project (photo: Tsodilo
Resources).
