Edenville Energy PLC Chief Executive Officer Rufus Short caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss the significance of their partnership with Sinohydro Corporation, the progress of the trial mining at the Rukwa project and his thoughts on the next few months of development for the company
Q1: First off, congratulations on the agreement with Sinohydro Corporation, could you explain the significance to Edenville?
A1: Well, the agreement with Sinohydro moves the project and the company into the next phase of development before a construction decision so it moves us forward quite considerably. This is really significant to Edenville Energy, we can now complete the BFS alongside what I would say is a world-class engineering group that will put their expertise and resources behind, pushing the power project forward alongside our parallel coal mine development that we are currently carrying out. Sinohydro will not only carry out the BFS but they’ll be greatly involved in the funding requirements and the movement forward to which we hope is power purchase agreement with the government of Tanzania. All these areas are now, to a degree, under one roof which as you can imagine makes the whole process much more streamlined and able to proceed in a logical manner. I’ve been very impressed with Sinohydro’s sober and analytical approach to the development and how we’ve progressed in the last few months with them, the way they take things step by step and I’m very confident they will find ways to maximise the project potential for both sides.
Q2: Why did you select Sinohydro Corporation to partner with?
A2: I don’t think it’s a case of one side selecting the other, it was very much a mutual understanding of the opportunity that the Rukwa project presents, it feels like a natural fit where both sides can work together to achieve the best outcome. I can’t think of a better partner to have in Tanzania with the in-depth and in-country experience that they possess, Sinohydro have been established in the country for over ten years and in Africa, for many more years before that. They understand well the power supply, the landscape shortages and how policy and development will evolve over the next few years, both in Tanzania and regionally. They’re a multi-discipline power development group that have also been, and are, involved in roads, infrastructure, development, being able to put together the technical and financial part of a project to complete it in an efficient way in Africa. As importantly as the technical considerations, they’re experienced in arranging funding from Chinese financial institutions with many of their projects being part of the considerable amount of development that is currently occurring in Africa linking, the highest levels in the Chinese business system and government.
Q3: Now, I see that the trial mining is underway at the Rukwa Coal project, how is this progressing?
A3: Very well, as I’ve said before, we are starting trial mining, we’ve been sending out deliveries of large bulk samples to different groups and some further samples are being completed now. Some of that coal is crushed but of course this is still run-of-mine coal and we plan to wash the coal as soon as we can get a wash permit onsite and establish this part of the operation. Additionally, we already have people on the ground, the demarcation and survey of the mining and infrastructure areas, we’re also looking at the possibility of integrating other areas such as the Namwele deposit into the operation and we’re currently opening up access to coal in these areas. So, we’re very busy with trial mining and that will move on to commercial mining in the near future.
Q4: Talking about the future, how do you see the next few months developing for Edenville Energy PLC?
A4: This is a very exciting and extremely busy time for the company, it’s the busiest time since I’ve joined and of course a major part of the next few months is that we’ll be working alongside Sinohydro to move the BFS along and in parallel, we also plan to engage with the government authorities to move forward with the power purchase agreement talks. Secondly, we’re already busy on the mining start-up, as I mentioned previously in your last question, the first coal is near to surface and we’ll be able to open up with a relatively small mining fleet, expanding as we go along. We’ve recently completed a Stage 1 Mining Plan and are organising equipment to start this, we already have access to some equipment so initially it will be a matter of adding to this to start production mining, accordingly with this, we’re sourcing appropriate professionals to manage the mining and processing efficiently. As I have already mentioned as well, a wash plant is planned and hopefully in the near future we can give more details on that, these wash plants are generally modular in nature so relatively quick to assemble. A major part of the timeframe involves transportation to the site so once at site we don’t see a long time to actually complete construction, it’s a relatively simple process of building a concrete pad and connecting up water and electrical systems and we should be able to operate. So, it’s going to be a very busy busy 6-12 months.
