South Africa Develops Regional Rail Network to Unlock Waterberg's Coal, Mineral Riches

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Unlocking the potential of South Africa's northern mineral belt in the Waterberg region is one major part of state-owned Transnet Freight Rail's (TFR) plan to develop the country's regional rail network, both for the internal domestic market and for exports.

Speaking at the 12th Coaltrans Southern Africa last week, TFR's Chief Executive Officer Siyabonga Gama said that the coal-carrying line to the terminal at Richards Bay on the Indian Ocean coast would include a link to Botswana. Gama said that the Waterberg coalfield in the northwest, close to the Botswana border, would be the source of significant tonnages of coal, both for domestic consumption and export.

With the Botswana link in place by 2020, the rail line would link that country's developing Mmamabula coal field to Lephalale in the heart of the Waterberg, then pass through Thabazimbi on its way to the coal area of Oogies in Mpumalanga, and then to Richard Bay in Kwazulu-Natal.

Some coal was transported from Botswana via Durban, where Bluff Mechanical Appliance handles 2 million tons of coal exports annually.

The independently owned Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) has the capacity to handle 91 million tons of coal exports annually. In 2012, 68.3 million tons went through the terminal. The shortfall relative to capacity was due partly to problems with the rail supply chain, which the new developments will address. By 2018, RBCT capacity will be increased to 95 million tons, by which time a new link through Swaziland will take noncoal freight off the line, allowing greater coal tonnage to feed through RBCT.

Transnet moves more than 95 million tons of coal per year through other terminals, including Matola in Mozambique, and ships major tonnages domestically to state-owned power utility Eskom and other users.

Provided the various available port capacities were correctly allocated, all producing miners would be able to export. Rail is an integral part of success for emerging junior miners, and Eskom's plan to source 1 billion tons of coal from emerging miners would be a game-changer, Gama said. He added that Transnet would be railing more than 32 million tons of coal for Eskom by 2019 and 60 million tons by 2030, as the Waterberg connection became an integral part of the supply chain.

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