(Bloomberg) --

South Africa’s Minerals and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe rallied behind the nation’s coal producers, emphasizing that the fossil fuel will still be used for decades. 

Mantashe, a former coal miner and union leader, told chief executive officers of mining companies that their product shouldn’t be abandoned “prematurely” and highlighted that the industry employs nearly 90,000 workers in a nation with record-high unemployment. The pep talk clashes with plans for the country, which relies on coal to produce more than 80% of its electricity, to transition to cleaner energy sources. Mantashe criticized the companies’ CEOs for not being more vocal in the campaign to support coal. 

“Where is our voice in this debate, I don’t hear you,” the minister said. “Every time you keep quiet I absorb that pressure. It would be more helpful for the industry itself to have a voice.”

Read more: South Africa Energy Minister Says More Coal Worth a Court Battle

The mines minister is at the center of a battle over whether the black rock should remain part of South Africa’s future energy mix as it moves toward more climate-friendly options, such as renewable energy. While richer nations have pledged $8.5 billion to South Africa to ditch its plans for new coal projects, rushing to end its dependency on the fossil fuel “will cost us dearly,” Mantashe said. Still, he urged mining companies to weigh investing in clean coal technologies that may prolong the use of the fossil fuel.

The government is still debating conditions for accessing the COP26 funding from richer nations and it’s not yet clear how the money would be made available, the minister said.

“That money must talk to our program and it must be finances available to fund our program, then it will make sense,” Mantashe said. “There is still an ongoing debate on how much of that is a loan, grant, concessional funding and how to access it. Until we understand that there is no acceptance.”

(Updates with COP26 funding from fourth paragraph)

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