Despite a global shift away from coal towards renewable energy, coal remains essential for energy generation, particularly in countries such as South Africa, where it still plays a significant role in the country’s energy generation mix.

As previously reported in Mining Weekly, coal has been included as one of the five most critical minerals in South Africa’s ‘Critical Minerals and Metals Strategy’, released by Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe, in May.

Above being integral in South Africa’s energy mix, Mantashe noted that coal remains in the top five owing to the coal industry providing employment opportunities, as well as large export volumes.

Speaking to Mining Weekly, recently appointed Global Alliance for Sustainable Coal (FutureCoal) chairperson Mike Teke agreed with this sentiment, noting that coal should be deemed a critical mineral in the South African context, given its current significance in the energy value chain and its importance in local economic development.

“Coal continues to play an important role, because right now, the makeup of our energy mix is still slanted towards coal being a predominant player,” he said, warning that a sudden transition away from coal could lead to a resumption in loadshedding.

Teke thus argued that the energy transition required the integration of coal with renewable energy, such as wind and solar, noting that the shift away from coal should be gradual.

“It’s not coal versus renewables; no, we need them to work together,” he said.

“Reducing our dependence on coal is not going to be a one-off, it is a transition over a period of time.”

To ensure the sustainable use of coal, Teke highlighted FutureCoal’s Sustainable Coal Stewardship (SCS) framework that provided a ten-year pathway for modernisation and responsible investment aimed at delivering economic and environmental benefits.

SCS comprises three components, namely pre-combustion, combustion and beyond consumption, and provides a pathway that supports extracting more economic and environmental value per tonne of coal.

Teke thus advocated for the adoption of technologies such as carbon capture, utilisation and storage.

“I would love to see South Africa aggressively accelerating when it comes to combustion. We are pushing SCS as FutureCoal and I would like to see our country embrace and invest in this technology,” he said.

“It is imperative that such technologies not be discounted and pushed aside, because we have coal in abundance. Let us try and make sure that we introduce and talk about clean coal. There is technology that can help make it possible,” he continued.

Following the retirement of July Ndlovu, FutureCoal announced earlier this month that Teke has stepped into his new role as FutureCoal chairperson. He will also retain his role as chairperson of FutureCoal’s Southern Africa chapter for the time being.