모잠비크는 제철용 및 발전용 석탄이 풍부하게 부존하여, 세계 최대의 광업회사인 브라질의 Vale(구 CVRD사)의 Moatze 프로젝트를 비롯한 호주 Riversdale사 및 영국 CAMEC사가 대규모로 석탄광을 개발 중이다.
그 중 Riversgale 및 Camec사의 석탄광 프로젝트는 2010년 중에 개발이 완료되어 대량의 석탄이 수출될 것으로 전망하고 있다.
(이하 영문기사 원문 참조)
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<Mozambique coal exports set for 2010 kickoff>
By: Martin Creamer
Published on 5th February 2009
CAPE TOWN (miningweekly.com) - Coal exports from Mozambique were all set for kickoff in 2010, the Cape Town coal conference heard on Thursday.
Riversdale Mining CFO Steve Thomas told the McCloskey's coal exports meeting that his ASX-listed emerging midtier entity would, at full production, be exporting six-million tons of hard coking coal and two-million tons of thermal coal from the port of Beira in the latter half of 2010.
Aim-listed Central African Mining & Exploration Company (Camec) consulting geologist Allan Saad added that his company planned its first-phase exporting in 2010, initially at the moderate rate of 1,5-million tons a year, and then building up to 15-million tons a year and later to 20-million tons a year.
The giant Vale of Brazil had a large project in the same area of the prospective but underexplored country, which embraced mining, coal-fired power generation, a railway line and a port.
Thomas described Mozambique's Moatize area as "one of the largest undeveloped coking coal regions left in the world", and Saad said that Mozambique had the potential to become "a world-class coal producer in the medium- to long-term".
Conference chairperson Gerard McCloskey remarked that it was "good" to see Mozambique's coal-mining industry emerging, because the country has "such a massive coal resource".
Camec, Saad added, intended trucking its coal 600 km to Beira, while it studied the feasibility of building a 450-km railway line for the larger volumes. The deposits contained both coking properties and power-station coal and mining benefits included a low 1:1 stripping ratio on a deposit that outcropped on the surface and had coal seams 60-m thick in parts.
Saad said that Mozambique's mining application process was computer-mediated and its mining laws World Bank-assisted.
"You walk into the department, there is a computer screen up. You switch it on and you can see where the licences are held. You are able to overlay the geology electronically and select the areas you would like to apply for. It's very simple and very effective. You put your application in and you know within 15 days whether or not you've been successful," Saad enthused.
Thomas said Riverdale's Mozambique coal would be transported by rail, road or barge. First choice was to rail the coal, and rail development was scheduled to begin in the second-half of 2009.
However, considerable work had been done on the feasibility of barging the coal down the Zambesi, which sugar farmers were already doing lower down.
The large Zambesi river splits Mozambique's Tete-Moatize coal province in two, causing different logistics rail or road arrangements to be made for those on different sides of the river.
If barging does come off, Thomas said that it would offer a huge advantage, and allow for the transport of substantial volumes to the port of Beira, for which upgrading contract awards were expected to be awarded in May.
Riversdale had also begun a government-approved study into the economic feasibility of generating 500 MW of coal-fired power in the area from 2014, fuelled by the four-million tons of domestic thermal coal that the company would also be producing a year, in addition to its export coal. The plan was eventually to build the proposed power station's capacity up to 2 000 MW in 500-MW units.
Brazil and India represented 46% of the company's target export market and the Indian steel giant Tata was Riversdale's partner and a 10% shareholder.
Riversdale came into prominence in South Africa when it acquired the 7000 000-t/y Zululand Anthracite Coal (Zac) after mining giant BHP Billiton had decided to close it.
Riversdale quickly breathed new life into the old operation, sinking a new shaft and later being given permission to sink another, this time on the Ngwabe block. Zac's reserves, Thomas reported, had been increased to extend Zac's mine life to 2023.
Situated between Ulundi and Richards Bay, Zac is currently Riversdale's only operating mine, its cash flow supporting the Mozambique project, for which substantial additional funding had now to be raised.
The A$437-million Riversdale, Thomas said, had A$323-million cash in the bank and was debt-free.
Ken Talbot of McCarthy Coal was the company's main shareholder, with 18,8% of the
stock.
