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‘Coal keeps South Africa alive’

13th September 2019

By: Simone Liedtke

Creamer Media Social Media Editor & Senior Writer

     

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Coal analyst Xavier Prevost has called for the continued support of coal in South Africa, considering that the commodity keeps the country and its mining industry “alive”.

He told delegates at the inaugural Coal Mining Symposium, in Middelburg, Mpumalanga, last week, that coal played a vital role in meeting global energy needs and that it was critical to infrastructure development.

About 37% of the world’s electricity and 74% of the world’s steel were produced from coal.

However, owing to the growing shift in the energy sector towards renewable energy to combat climate change, he lamented, globally, investment in new coal projects had declined.

“[Owing to this] and the attacks [on] coal, people don’t want to invest in new mines.”

Meanwhile, he noted that South Africa had produced about 258-million tonnes of coal in 2018 and that the coal industry had generated sales of R145-billion in 2017/18, with export sales accounting for about R73-billion and domestic sales about R72-billion.

In comparison, the gold and platinum group metals sectors generated sales of R69-billion and R104-billion respectively in 2017/18.

Edited by Chanel de Bruyn
Creamer Media Online Managing Editor

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