Lignite Mine Project

extractive

Cities

Thar desert

Pakistan

Cost

$1b

$1,000,000,000

Phases

operational, 2022

Objective

Description

The Thar Block-1 covers approximately 122 km2 in the southern part of the Thar coalfield area in the Thar Desert in the Sindh province of Pakistan, approximately 380km east of Karachi. The Thar coalfield area covers approximately 9,000 km2 and is bounded by the Pakistan-India border to the north, east, and south. A 1.3GW coal-fired power plant being developed as part of the integrated project is located approximately 5km away from the pithead of the Thar Block-1 coal mine.

History

Shanghai Electric Engineering Consulting Company Limited and Shanghai Electric Hongkong International Engineering Company Limited were the EPC contractors responsible for implementation. After back-to-back meetings between SSRL and the Energy Department of the Government of Sindh, the first excavation took place on January 23, 2019. Mining work on the Thar Coal Block-I mine began in October 2019 (with equity contributions that were provided to SSRL prior to financial close in December 2019). Soon after the first excavation, the SSRL started importing mining equipment from China and by July 2020 all the required equipment was at the project site. Construction was temporarily suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, in August 2020, a batch of 500 Chinese workers and managers arrived in Pakistan by a special chartered flight, which accelerated the implementation of the project. By February 2021, almost 40% of work related to coal mining was reportedly completed. The first shovel of lignite coal was extracted at the coal pit of Block 1 on January 31, 2022. The originally expected commercial operations date (COD) of the 1.32GW Thar Block-1 Integrated Coal Mine-Power Project was September 30, 2022. Its actual COD was February 5, 2023. 4,767 people were reportedly employed by the project (of which 1381 were Chinese and 3386 were Pakistani).