Matola deep

Expressions of interest for the contract to build the new railway through Swaziland will be sought before the end of this year. The line will take about 16 Mtpa of general freight off the existing coal line from Ermelo to Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) in the short term, opening up capacity on that railway.

The Port of Maputo has been dredged to allow much larger vessels to use Matola Coal Terminal.

The Port of Maputo has been dredged to allow much larger vessels to use Matola Coal Terminal.

Australian firm Resource Generation (Resgen) plans to develop the 12 Mtpa Boikarabelo coal mine and railway in South Africa. The opencast mine is located in the Waterberg Basin, in Limpopo Province, which is expected to become an important source of South African coal production, but it currently lacks rail capacity. Coal from the mine could be exported via either Matola Coal Terminal in Mozambique, Richards Bay Coal Terminal or even Durban.

Port and rail developments will help the West African minnow unlock its largely untapped bauxite reserves.

South African transport conglomerate Grindrod appears to have negotiated the same tariff with Transnet as users of Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) for coal transported to its Navitrade terminal at Richards Bay.