25 October 2009
Maputo — So far this year, the Brazilian mining giant Vale has invested 345 million US dollars in coal mining operations in Moatize, in the western Mozambican province of Tete, and by the end of the year the sum may reach 500 million dollars, according to Vale chairperson Roger Agnelli.
Speaking in the northern Mozambican port of Nacala on Friday, Agnelli said that the Vale mine in Moatize should start production next year, and the main client for the high quality hard coking coal from Moatize would be the Brazilian steel industry
"Brazil imports 100 per cent of its coking coal, so this is a partnership which has come to stay, or to last or years, decades and maybe centuries", added Agnelli.
He was speaking during the ceremony at which Vale, the Mozambican government, and Insitec Investments, the company which is the major shareholder in the Northern Development Corridor (CDN), the consortium that operates the Nacala port and rail systems signed a protocol on "Nacala XXI" - a project that will invest 1.6 billion US dollars in the port and railway, so that they will be able to handle coal exports from Moatize.
Agnelli said that, in its first phase, the Vale mine at Moatize will produce 11 million tonnes of coal a year, of which six to eight million tonnes will be exported.
But in a second phase, production is expected to rise to 24 million tonnes a year, and eventually even to 40 million tonnes a year. Exports of coal on this scale cannot possibly be handled by the port of Beira.
"So the future of the Moatize mine depends on the Nacala corridor, it depends on this investment", stressed Agnelli.
Nacala XXI "is not work for just one or two years", he added. "It's work that will last five, six, seven or eight years. It's heavy work, it's incessant work, it's work that requires a lot of dedication if we're going to complete it".
Insitec chairperson Celso Correia told the ceremony that only Mozambicans can solve the problems facing the country.
"We are well aware that the solutions to our problems depend, above all, on us, on Mozambicans, on our capacity to unite around those problems", he declared
He noted that people in Nampula province are always looking for means of survival, and "the message we are giving them is that the Mozambican private sector, in partnership with the government and with foreign partners will be present to help us on this difficult journey".
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