Projects

Project Description 

The Morupule Unit 5&6 project is a brownfields open pit coal mine, located in the Palapye region in Botswana. The objective of the project was to supply 1.3Mtpa of a low sulphur coal product to a 300MW power station which was to be build and operated by an Independent Power Producer.

A complete and detailed mine design and production schedule was developed for the 30-year Life of Mine with 30% reserve contingency. The process plant was implemented on a BOOM (Build, Own, Operate and Maintain) contract basis for the initial period, followed by owner operations.

Services provided

Both Pre-feasibility and Feasibility Studies were conducted by DRA Global who was responsible for the full scope of works including geotechnical, mining, process, infrastructure, capital, operating and sustaining costing and project management to prove the operability and viability of the project. 

Project highlights/challenges

The major mining challenge was ensuring that a consistent low sulphur RoM blend was fed to the processing plant which was designed to beneficiate only +8mm – slightly more than 50% of the RoM feed via a DMS plant. The remaining portion of the RoM (-8mm) feed was bypassed straight to IPP product feed. This partial beneficiation ensured consistent coal product quality and that sulphur limits were never exceeded.