nmr in australian on august 15th

PURE SPECULATION: Robin Bromby
From:The Australian
August 15, 201112:00AM

Out of Africa

COAL has been getting a bad press in some quarters but, in a great many of the 194 countries that are not proposing a carbon tax, it is still regarded as a rather necessary part of life.

One of the most recent examples was the announcement on Wednesday that a consortium led by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is the preferred bidder to add 2400 megawatts of coal-fired capacity at Taiwan's Linkou power station.

The Taiwanese are installing so-called ultra supercritical-pressure coal-fired systems, which substantially reduce carbon dioxide emissions compared to conventional coal-fired plants.

China, as we all know, is building thermal power plants as fast as it can. Meanwhile, the Indians are planning to build an additional 80,000MW over the next 10 years. That will require an additional 200 million tonnes of seaborne thermal coal to be imported.

That's where Botswana and a clutch of Australian explorers come in. The thermal coal there is not of the highest quality in energy terms so existing power stations would probably not buy it. It is very difficult to adjust an operational power station system, but this is not a problem when starting from scratch.

India will design these new power stations to handle lower calorific-value coal. In terms of transport, there is a railway line to South Africa and there are proposals to build lines to the Namibian coast to the west and to Mozambique's Indian Coast to the east.

In addition, Botswana will provide a domestic market for the new mines as it builds another 600MW coal-fired generating plant. The government now has a freeze on new coal licences until it completes a study of how best to develop its coal industry. It has an estimated 212 billion tonnes of thermal coal under its soil.

The Australian players include Aviva Corp (AVA), which is earning 90 per cent of the Mmamantswe prospect, where 1.3bn tonnes of coal has been identified. The company, after drilling, is now working on its environmental statement for a 10m tonne-a-year mine and power station.

Continental Coal (CCC) has its many admirers, with 2.4 billion shares on issue. Over the past month, its daily trading volumes have swung between 8.5 million and 96m. But present interest is largely based on production in South Africa; during the week, it reported a maiden 44m tonne reserve at its De Wittekrans deposit. But future upside lies with its three exploration areas in Botswana, the ground being seen as an extension of South Africa's Waterburg coal field.

Out of Kyrgyzstan (gold and uranium) and into Botswana (thermal coal) has been the strategy at NIMRODEL RESOURCES (NMR). Unrest in the central Asian republic and problems getting a partner spurred the switch. Its Botswana project area has been drilled before (by BHP Coal among others) and Nimrodel's latest report said drilling results so far were pretty much in line with previous results, which has increased its confidence. Other coal players in Botswana are Aquila Resources (AQA) , African Energy Resources (AFR), which recently raised $15m for its Sese coal project, and Hodges Resources (HDG).


Good to see! Now lets hope people still read Murdoch's rags