It seems like it will cost a lot more to get coal from South Africa to Germany than from Russia. Didn’t Germany have lots of coal mines just a few decades ago?
There are three areas in Germany that still have active lignite mines, all of them open-cast mines. These are the Rhineland, Lusatia and Central Germany. Extraction in the Helmstedt district ended in August 2016. Annual output has remained broadly stable in recent years, totalling around 171.5 million tonnes in 2017.
Germany has proven reserves equivalent to 154.6 times its annual consumption. This means it has about 155 years of Coal left (at current consumption levels and excluding unproven reserves).