Following an industry agreement between stakeholders to provide extra capacity for junior miners Transnet has decided to postpone its plans regarding the construction of a new R15 billion coal terminal at Richards Bay.

Transnet Group CEO Brian Molefe has stated that the coal export capacity of Quattro, the black economic empowerment (BEE) scheme, will be doubled to benefit small black junior miners.

In the region of 15-million tonnes a year of coal export capacity had been made available to BEE-compliant companies through the Richards Bay Coal Terminal’s (RBCT) phase-five expansion.

In the past, Molefe heavily criticised RBCT for not providing access to small, black-owned coal-mining companies.

Molefe has stated the construction of the new coal terminal is “not as urgent as it was before” as the industry had agreed to include junior miners.

RBCT corporate affairs manager Gcina Nhleko maintains that discussions regarding raising the capacity of junior miners are still confidential.

She highlights that the 4-million-tonne export capacity available to junior miners was “underutilised”. This is a result of the current volatile coal market that is experiencing a drop in prices.

“If the market is volatile for the big players, it will have an even bigger effect on the junior miners,” explains Nhleko.