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Johannesburg - An unnamed consortium is planning a new 10-million-tons-a-year export terminal to be built adjacent to privately owned Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) in KwaZulu-Natal, sources close to the deal said on Friday.
The new terminal will be privately owned and is intended to provide export access to junior miners that are unable to export through RBCT because they failed to gain access under RBCT's Phase V expansion, the sources said.
RBCT's Phase V expansion, which will be completed in July next year, will raise export capacity to 91m tons from about 80m tons.
Too few black economic empowerment coal producers were granted access under Phase V, the sources said. The new terminal is intended to address the problem.
SA will not have more than 100m tons a year of standard grade coal for export, but the majority of small miners that sought export access have failed to gain it.
Unless RBCT is nationalised and opened to all the country's producers, not just shareholders, a new terminal would be the only way to provide export access to all, the sources say.
RBCT's shareholders are large mining houses whose production is often - in some cases markedly - lower than their export capacity.
For the past several years, a small number of RBCT shareholders and traders leasing export capacity have been buying coal from junior miners unable to export directly, to fill their export allocation.
A new terminal with a jointly operated stockpile would give junior miners a better chance of marketing their own coal.
Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) has guaranteed to provide trains to match the new terminal's capacity, the sources say.
But sources in large and small mining companies say they are sceptical that TFR will be able to provide trains to carry an extra 10m tons a year to the proposed new terminal.
TFR is already struggling to provide trains for RBCT's current users and will not have the trains to support the Phase V expansion from next year unless it cuts rail capacity to RBCT shareholders, they say.
RBCT is owned by BHP Billiton, Anglo Coal SA, Xstrata, Exxaro and Total Coal SA.
- Reuters