Work is due to begin on Botswana’s second privately-owned coal mine in the first quarter of next year, the CEO of Maatla Resources told Reuters, despite calls to abandon coal. At the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, the southern African country signed up to a global commitment to reduce the use of heavily-polluting coal, but opted out of a pledge to stop issuing new licences to mine the fossil fuel. Botswana is edging ahead with developing its coal resources, which are estimated at 200 billion tonnes, as it looks to wean its economy off a dependence on diamonds. Maatla was awarded a licence in February and had hoped to start building the 1.2 million tonnes per annum mine this year, but was stalled by the COVID-19 pandemic and regulatory delays. Now, Maatla is looking to proceed after a funding deal with Frankfurt-listed HMS […]