The Thar coalfield located in south-east Pakistan is considered to be the biggest coalfield in Asia. The massive coalfield was discovered by the Sindh Arid Zone Development Authority (SAZDA) and the British Overseas Development Administration (ODA) in 1988.
The Thar Block-1 integrated coal mine and power project involves a 7.8 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) open-pit coal mine and a 1.3GW ultra-supercritical coal-fired power plant in the Thar region in Pakistan’s Sindh province.
The £2.6bn ($3.2bn) integrated project is being developed as part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) under China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Shanghai Electric Group, is the main sponsor of the project.
Shanghai Electric announced the financial closure for the coal mine component of the integrated project in February 2020, with the first unit of the power plant scheduled for commissioning in August 2022 while the second unit is expected to come online in 2023.
The 7.8Mtpa Thar Block-1 coal mine is being developed by Sino-Sindh Resources (SSRL), a subsidiary of Global Mining (China), which was awarded a 30-year mining lease for the Thar Block-1 coalfield in October 2011.
The feasibility study for the mine was completed in March 2012. Shanghai Electric agreed to become the controlling shareholder of SSRL in September 2018.
It is being developed by Thar Coal Block-I Power Generation Company (TCB-I), a subsidiary of Shanghai Electric. The Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB), Government of Pakistan, signed an agreement with Shanghai Electric in December 2019.
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.
The 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.