Riversdale receives EIS approval for Benga power plant

Enstreet News Bureau
1/26/2010

Riversdale has announced that following completion of an Environmental Impact Study (EIS), the Ministério para a Coordenação da Acção Ambiental (MICOA) has approved the Benga Power Plant (BPP) EIS. MICOA is the regulatory authority for environment within the Government of Mozambique.

Under the plan the BPP will be developed in 2 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 Benga Power Plant will be located in the Tete province of Mozambique in close proximity to Riversdale Mining’s world-class Benga Coal Project which will supply thermal coal to the plant.

Riversdale has also been granted access to the existing Mozambique power transmission network. As previously disclosed, a key precondition that remains to be satisfied involves concluding satisfactory power purchase agreements with various off-take parties. These discussions are progressing.

The Benga Power Project will help meet increasing regional demand in Mozambique and in South Africa as well as supplying a cost effective source of energy for our own mine at Benga.

Source: Riversdale Mining