KARACHI, June 1: Sindh Mines and Mineral Development Minister Irfan Marwat has said that the bankable feasibility study on Thar coal has been successfully completed by German company Rheinbraun Engineering and the documents have been purchased by US company AES Oasis Limited for mining and setting up of an integrated coal-fired power project of up to 1,000 megawatts.
Speaking at the opening session a workshop on “coal, granite and china clay resources of Thar” organized jointly by the Sindh Coal Authority and the Geological Survey of Pakistan, the minister informed the audience that an agreement was signed for setting up a coal washing plant and a power plant with Ukrainian company Ukrinetrerenergo. He dispelled the impression that Chinese company Shenba Group might back out of the deal.
The minister said that the Chinese company was a public sector concern and was finalizing certain formalities. He said the exploration of coal, granite and china clay deposits was going on a fast track.
Mirza Talib Hussain, Director General of the Geological Survey of Pakistan, in his welcome remarks emphasized the need for exploitation of coal resources to meet energy requirement because hydel power was on decline and was subject to climatic factors; thermal power generation was a total drain on foreign exchange and gas resources were depleting.
The Geological Survey of Pakistan, he recalled, discovered the sub surface coal deposits in 1992. The discovery of 174 billion tons of lignite coal deposits had brought Pakistan on the world coal map, he said.
