In the late 19th century, when gold mining began in South Africa, especially on the Witwatersrand, the first coal was mined from the Highveld coal field, which was adjacent to the emerging Witwatersrand gold mines. This marked the beginning of coal mining in South Africa. At the same time, demand started to rise, albeit slowly at first, and then massively, as the nation entered an industrialization period during and after WWII. As part of this, Sasol constructed a large coal-based synfuels and organic chemicals complex at Secunda, and a number of power stations, mostly on the Witbank and Delmas coal fields. Basically, South Africa was laying the groundwork for its industrial future and technical skill base by relying on its primary fossil fuel supply. Coal is still the bedrock of the country's fossil fuel future, as efforts to find alternative fossil fuels have so far failed.
The local private sector, consisting mostly of the ancient mining houses, retained control of the coal sector for a considerable amount of time. But, international oil firms built new collieries to service export markets in a fierce competition for coal supplies, notably during the 1970s oil crises. Ownership was gradually transferred to historically disadvantaged South Africans following the 1994 democratic election, with several cases surpassing the 26% Black-ownership level set by the Mining Charter for 2014.
With an original yearly capacity of 12Mt, the Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) was founded in 1976 as a collaboration amongst the then-leading coal corporations. With careful planning, the rail capacity required to transport coal from inland collieries to the coast has been continuously increasing, and it is now capable of carrying 91 million metric tons of coal. Seaborne coal prices were often higher than domestic prices for a long time while this export capability was being increased. The result was intense rivalry for available space on the rail line that runs beside the RBCT. As exporters from competing nations have battled to preserve their market shares, export prices have fallen by more than half since 2013. This is due to the commodities collapse and the excess of bulk commodities on global markets.
The power stations that were constructed more than 30 years ago will continue to operate until around the middle of this century, which is quite a ways off. Using coal supplies in the provinces of Mpumalanga and Limpopo, Eskom is constructing two state-of-the-art thermal power stations—Medupi and Kusile—in the northernmost part of the country. We are currently not planning any further thermal stations. The government and state-owned Eskom are evaluating the viability of switching to nuclear electricity.
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