London Stock Exchange-listed Ncondezi Energy Ltd announced on 9 November that it has signed a non-binding offer with China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) and General Electric South Africa Ltd in Beijing. The deal was agreed in principle in October and the companies will now begin negotiations for a binding joint development agreement as well as engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and operations and maintenance (O&M) contracts for the development, construction and operation of the 300MW integrated Ncondezi coal power and open pit mine project in Tete province, Mozambique. Negotiations will be exclusive until 30 April 2018.
Under the agreement, CMEC and General Electric are expected to acquire 60% of the power plant and lead project financing. Financial close is expected in Q4 2018. As well as EPC for the plant, the pair will build a transmission line to connect the plant to the grid, which will be transferred to national utility Electricidade de Moçambique on completion. Boiler technology for the plant had been changed to pulverised coal by previous partner Shanghai Electric Power but this will now be changed back to circulating fluidised bed.
