UK-listed Contango plans thermal coal exports from Zimbabwe in … – Reuters
Nov 30 (Reuters) – London-listed Contango Holdings (CGO.L) plans to start exporting thermal coal early next year from its Zimbabwe mine following requests from customers in Europe and Asia, the company said on Wednesday.
Zimbabwe's neighbour South Africa saw an eight-fold increase in coal exports to Europe during the first half of 2022, after the European Union banned coal imports from Russia as part of sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine.
Coal prices had started rising even before the conflict as some European countries switched away from expensive natural gas to coal, despite global commitments to move away from the polluting mineral.
Contango owns 70% of the Lubu project in western Zimbabwe's coal-rich Hwange district. The company's main focus is supplying its low-sulphur coking coal to the southern African ferro alloy and industrial markets, but it has found current prices of thermal coal – used in electricity generation – attractive.
The company said it had received "unsolicited approaches" for thermal coal from buyers, ranging from trading houses to industrial consumers, in Africa, Europe and Asia.
"Fuelled by the dramatic rise in thermal coal prices over the past 12 months … the board are now considering a coking and thermal operation, delivering 10,000 tonnes of coking coal and 10,000 tonnes of thermal coal per month based on current capacity in H1 2023," Contango said in a statement.
Contango, which plans to increase its annual output to 300,000 tonnes by the end of 2023, said it had recently raised 7.5 million pounds ($9 million) through a private placement to fund its operations.
($1 = 0.8340 pounds)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Oil prices steadied on Friday, but fell for the week on a stronger U.S. dollar and fears that an economic slowdown would weaken crude demand.
Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers.
Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology.
The most comprehensive solution to manage all your complex and ever-expanding tax and compliance needs.
The industry leader for online information for tax, accounting and finance professionals.
Access unmatched financial data, news and content in a highly-customised workflow experience on desktop, web and mobile.
Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts.
Screen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks.
All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays.
© 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved
