Canada’s CIC Energy, which is building a coal mine and a power station in Botswana, said it might build a coal-to-liquids plant in that country, the company said on Monday.

This formed part of CIC Energy's investigation into maximising the value of the coal resource at Mmamabula, as the current coal resource estimate in the measured and indicated categories exceeded projected coal consumption for both the first and second phases of the power plant.

CIC Energy added that exploration might also lead to further expansion in the mineral resource at Mmamabula.
The net capacity of the first phase of the project would be between 2 100 MW and 2 460 MW, using a total of between 7,5-million tons and nine-million tons of coal a year. The second phase of the plant was expected to be of comparable size.

The company also said that the total cost of the project, which was developed with International Power, had increased by more than 20%, from the initial $5-billion (R34,4-billion) to $6-billion (R43,7-billion) for the plant and $300-million (R2,18-billion) for the associated mine infrastructure.

The surge in costs was blamed on the global demand for power plants, a robust construction market, the tight supply for engineering services and the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor prices for power stations.

CIC Energy also said that it was advancing its discussions with a select group of EPC contractors, following the launch of a formal EPC tender late last year.

The contract was expected to be signed concurrently with the power purchase agreements with Eskom and the Botswana Power Corporation, implementation agreement with the government of Botswana, and project financing agreements towards the end of the year.

The project's final environmental-impact assessment (EIA) had been filed last week with the Botswana government for the power station, mine and transmission lines, and the company said that the EIA would be subject to a final public participation process in July, with the target being to obtain formal records of decision during the third quarter of this year.

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