Vietnam would like to buy coal mines in South Africa

Talking with the leader of Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam, Deputy Minister of Minerals and Energy of South Africa Mr. Thabo Mokoena said the opportunities for investment and trade cooperation between the two countries in exploiting South Africa coal and energy are very great because this country has the leading coal reserves in the world.

The bilateral meeting between Mr. Dang Hoang An and Mr. Thabo Mokoena. Source: Industry and Trade Newspaper.

In bilateral contact, Mr. Dang Hoang An informed South Africa about the import coal demand for thermal power plants in Vietnam in the near future, and asked friendly side to clarify the relevant regulations to allowing the foreign investors, including Vietnamese enterprises, to buy coal mines, and trade and export coal in South Africa. Mr. Dang Hoang An also suggested that South Africa side as soon as possibly to complete internal procedures for the two sides to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on cooperation in the mineral sector.

Besides, the two sides also exchanged opportunities for cooperation in the power and renewable energy development.

South Africa is a country ranking the 12 in the world by coal reserve with 9,893 million tons (of which all Anthracite and Bituminous coal) accounted to the end of 2017 for 1% of the total coal reserves of the world.   

In South Africa coal is mainly concentrated in the Waterberg and Witbank regions, with the rates of 29.4% and 52.6% respectively, in the remaining regions there are account for 2.6% to 6.2%.

The most of the coal in South Africa has quality from the medium to high level: Only coal in South Rand area has a heat rate of 4,300 kcal/kg and coal in Vereeniging – Sasolburg area with 3,775kcal/kg, the coal in other areas has a heat rate of over 6,000kcal/kg. The sulfur content in the most coal of South Africa is less than 1%.

The traditional coal export markets of South Africa were   Europe, the Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom.

After 2000, when the European countries implemented obligatory reducing GHG emissions under the Kyoto Protocol, the coal import of these countries started to decline. At present, South Africa exports 45% the total export coal amount for India. China, which imported a large number of coal amount from South Africa, but in recent years, did not more import coal from the country.

South Africa currently has three seaports for coal export connected to the coal mines by railway system, including the Richards Bay port in the south of the country, a largest coal export port in the world with a capacity of 91 million tons/year.

VietnamEnergy.vn