Under the plan, the Benga plant will be developed in two stages, a 500MW coal-fired mine-mouth power station (stage 1) expected to be completed during 2013 using existing transmission assets, and an upgrade to a capacity of 2,000MW (stage 2) depending upon the proposed transmission backbone and other transmission capacity.
The proposed power plant will be located in the Tete province of Mozambique in close proximity to Riversdale Mining’s Benga coal project, which will supply thermal coal to the plant.
Riversdale has also been granted access to the existing Mozambique power transmission network. A precondition that remains to be satisfied involves concluding satisfactory power purchase agreements with various off-take parties, the company said.
The Benga power project is expected to help meet regional demand in Mozambique and in South Africa as well as supplying energy for Riversdale’s mine at Benga.
