Maputo, 10 Nov (AIM) – The Indian ICVL Group, which is operating coal assets in the central Mozambican province of Tete, intends to invest over 150 million dollars to double annual coal production to four million tonnes.
According to Amarendru Prakash, Chairperson of SAIL, one of the Indian state-owned companies in the ICVL consortium, cited by the Indian press, the new investment required is between 150 and 200 million dollars.
The ICVL Group’s coal assets are located in the province of Tete, through the Benga mines and ICVL Zambeze, two locally incorporated companies.
The Benga mine holds an operating coal concession in the district of Moatize, while ICVL Zambeze has another mining unit partly in the city of Tete and in the district of Moatize, as well as four other concessions in the eastern part of the province.
The two companies are owned by the International Coal Ventures Limited (ICVL) consortium, which comprises three shareholders, all steel manufacturers in India and owned by the Indian state, namely SAIL, NMDC and RINL.
According to ICVL, the Benga open-cast mine, with proven reserves of 236 million tonnes of coal, began operating at the end of 2012 and has a “state-of-the-art” handling and processing unit.
The coal is transported by ICVL-owned trains to the port of Beira, in the central province of Sofala, a distance of around 590 kilometers.
The company has a fleet of 15 locomotives and 310 wagons with an average transport capacity of 62 tonnnes to transport the coal from the mine to the port.
“The fleet of locomotives and wagons is capable of transporting over 1.6 million tonnes of coal a year”, says ICVL.
(AIM)
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