13 June 2011
Maputo — The Indian state-owned company International Coal Ventures (ICVL) is considering buying a 59 per cent stake in the company Minas de Revuboe from the Australian Talbot Group at an estimated cost of one billion US dollars
Minas de Revuboe holds the licence to mine for coal at Revuboe in the Moatize coal basin, in the western Mozambican province of Tete.
The Revobue area is close to the two coal projects operated by Riversdale Mining of Australia (the Benga and Zambeze projects), and to the Moatize open cast mine of the Brazilian mining company, Vale.
The Revobue area has an estimated reserve of 700 million tonnes of coking coal. It is currently project managed by the Australian company Talbot Group, with the other shareholders being the South Korean steel company Posco, Nippon Steel of Japan, and the Mozambican government.
ICVL is a joint venture composed of five Indian state companies – NTPC Ltd, Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), Coal India Ltd (CIL), Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) and NMDC Ltd, set up to secure coking and thermal coal assets to supply the Indian market.
In January the Mozambican government stated that it would not award any more concession blocks to Coal India (CIL) until it had taken more steps to exploit the two concessions it already holds.
The two existing Coal India blocks cover about 225 square kilometres in Moatize district. Initial estimates are that the blocks contain reserves of a billion tonnes of coal.
Despite this, according to senior Coal India official Narinder Kurana, the company wanted exploration rights to a further five blocks.
Coal India plans to invest 400 million dollars in the two concessions if viable deposits are found.
AllAfrica – All the Time
See the original article here:
Indian Company May Buy Revuboe Coal Rights