Transnet ‘on the cusp of breaking through the Waterberg’
Transnet is confident it will be able to offer capacity of 6-million tonnes of coal a year on the rail line from Lephalale in the Waterberg to Richards Bay by next year, and will double that to 12-million tonnes by 2020, Divyesh Kalan, the rail utility’s commercial GM, said on Friday. As coal mines in Mpumalanga are ageing and their resources are depleting, the future of SA’s coal industry is moving to the Waterberg region, but the lack of water and rail capacity have contributed to limiting new investments. Kalan told the IHS Markit South African Coal Export Conference 2017 that Transnet was "on the cusp of breaking through the Waterberg". Once it had established confidence in the line from Lephalale to Richards Bay it would be able to look at extending the line to Botswana. There have been no discussions on that extension yet with Botswana’s government or other parties. He said over the past year Transnet had invited holders of prospecting and mining rights and mineral resources i...
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