South Africa: ZAC/Gupta venture begins exports

Joint venture set to begin anthracite exports April.[$]

 

{reg}[PAID={"id":"12,13,14","title":"The content you tried to access is only available to paid subscribers.","link":"1"}] A joint venture between Zululand Anthracite Collieries (ZAC), Atul and Atul Gupta is set to begin coal exports by April reports Reuters.

 

The venture conducted in cooperation with South African President Jacob Zumas son Duduzane, will mine and export 1.2 million tons of anthracite coal a year. Apart from mining, the joint venture is also developing new anthracite reserves. The company says it is ready to export large volumes of the material as it already has export capacity at Richards Bay Coal Terminal and are just waiting for the rail capacity to be available to start exporting. The involvement of Duduzane has raised a lot of scrutiny and attention from the media.

ZAC has export entitlements at South Africas Richards Bay Coal Terminal under the Quattro scheme which gives access to the export market to qualified Black Economic Empowerment miners (BEE). Non-Quattro BEEs have struggled to find export access at the privately owned terminal because rail capacity limits the amount, which can be moved through the port. Alternative ports such as Durban, Maputo or Richards Bays Dry Bulk Terminal cost significantly more to use.{/REG}