JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Sichuan Provincial Investment Group (SCIG) has formally approved proceeding with UK energy developer Oracle Power’s combined lignite coal mine and mine-mouth power plant project, located in Block VI of the Thar desert in the south-east of the Sindh province of Pakistan.
The approval for the $1.6-billion project was subject to Oracle obtaining all necessary approvals and licences required by the Chinese and Pakistan governments and satisfactory due diligence.
This followed the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) in November last year.
SCIG and PowerChina International Group, Oracle's project development partner, have conducted their preparatory work on the project and have now agreed to proceed towards completion of a due diligence, which the company believes will be completed in the second quarter.
The parties have entered into a two-stage approach to develop the project and the SCIG board approval is a key step forward as part of the first stage. On completion of the first stage, the next step will be to seek approval from the Chinese government, after which a final development decision will be made to take the project through to financial close.
Given that the project has priority status in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, the Aim-listed Oracle’s board expects approval by the Chinese government to be given in a timely fashion.