Coal news and updates

The board of directors of Thal Limited has decided to invest Rs360 million in the Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) and also agreed to make further investment of up to Rs3 billion subject to the condition that SECMC achieves financial closing of its Thar coal mining project by December 31, 2015, according to a company notice sent to the Karachi Stock Exchange on Thursday.

 

The company will now initiate the process of seeking requisite regulatory approvals to be able to make the investment, it said.

 

Operating under the umbrella of House of Habib Group, Thal Limited is a diversified national conglomerate engaged in the manufacturing of engineering products, jute products, laminate sheets and paper sacks.

 

As the Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) has initiated work on its Thar project, several local, as well as multinational companies and investors, are willing to join the project, it said. SECMC has initiated work for 113 million cubic metre overburden removal in Thar Block-II.

 

Shamsuddin Shaikh, CEO of SECMC, said that the work has been started in Thar and expressed the hope that SECMC would be able to transfer first electron by December 2017.

 

Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company, a joint venture between the government of Sindh and Engro Corporation, has been working on the project for the last four to five years.

 

Engro as manager of the project has been working on the technical and commercial aspects, whereas the government is developing the requisite infrastructure for the project, according to the notice.

 

As developer of the Thar Block-II, SECMC plans to expand the mine in phases and reach a sustainable capacity of coal output for the production of 4,000MW for more than 50 years. The Phase–I of the project envisages mining operation of 3.8 million tons per annum of coal to be utilised by mine-mouth 660MW plant for 30 years.

 

A wholly-owned subsidiary by the name of Thar Power Company (THARCO) was incorporated in 2013 with the objective of developing the power plant designed to operate on Thar coal. The total investment for the integrated project is estimated to be $1.7 billion where China will fuel the project with investment, labour and machineries.

 

Speaking about the project’s current status, Shams said that the company had achieved substantial progress on the mining and power project during the year.

 

Firm EPC bids had been received from leading Chinese firms and final announcement is expected by the end of this month, he added.

 

 

Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/