MOATIZE, Mozambique – Brazilian mining giant Vale opened a new US$1,7 billion coal mine in Mozambique yesterday, tapping the southern African country’s thermal and coking coal reserves of around 23 billion tons.
Mozambican President Armando Guebuza and outgoing Vale chief Roger Agnelli opened the mine together by pressing a button that triggered an underground explosion, enabling the company to bring to the surface its first coal from the mine in Moatize, outside the city of Tete in northwest Mozambique.As a giant smoke cloud mushroomed over the hundreds of VIP guests, a giant truck brought a symbolic load to a conveyer belt and onward to a coal washing plant.’A dream of decades today becomes a reality,’ said Guebuza.’What was a mere project in the past, today is a majestic undertaking in which natural resources drive the development of Mozambican human resources.’The US$1,7 billion project is the largest single investment to date in Mozambique, one of the world’s poorest countries.Vale plans to start production in July and export one million tons of coal this year, ramping up output to 11 million tons in a few years – and, local officials hope, boosting Mozambique’s current economic growth of 6,5 per cent.’We surmounted all the challenges,’ said Agnelli, referring to the skills shortages and logistical headaches that have hampered the project.Mozambique’s coal reserves have lain relatively untapped since independence from Portugal in 1975. A civil war from 1977 to 1992 crippled the country’s economy and decimated its infrastructure.Two decades later, Mozambique is welcoming foreign investors to its mineral wealth and licking its lips at the prospect of a boom.In 2004 Vale became the first international mining giant to be granted a concession in Mozambique. At the peak of preparations, the company counted 7 500 workers, mostly Mozambican.Australian mining company Riversdale, in a partnership with India’s Tata steel, will also start operations later this year at a nearby coal mine, hoping to produce six million tons a year by 2016.Mozambique signed a third large coal contract in February with India’s Jindal Steel and Power, which hopes to produce 11 million tons a year from 2012.But concerns remain about getting the coal to market as infrastructure renovation lags behind.Reconstruction of the 600-kilometre Sena railway line that connects coal-rich Moatize district to the Indian Ocean port city of Beira is still not finished. Nor is the coal terminal at the port.- Nampa-AFP
