Reuters
Zimbabwe's neighbour South Africa saw an eight-fold increase in coal exports to Europe during the first half of 2022, after the European Union banned coal imports from Russia as part of sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine. Coal prices had started rising even before the conflict as some European countries switched away from expensive natural gas to coal, despite global commitments to move away from the polluting mineral. Contango owns 70% of the Lubu project in western Zimbabwe's coal-rich Hwange district.